The Central Community College men's basketball team lost at North Platte Community College, 78-73, on Saturday. The loss drops the Raiders to 7-10 overall and 0-2 in Region IX action.

The teams exchanged scoring runs to open the first half. CCC started out on a 9-3 run, to which the Knights responded with a 16-2 spurt to go up 19-11. NPCC went on to take a 43-31 lead at halftime.

After falling behind by 15 points early in the second half, the Raiders mounted a comeback on the strength of a 19-4 run to tie the score at 52. However, CCC was never able to regain the lead and NPCC secured the five-point win. Still, Raiders head coach Jerry Drymon was still optimistic.

"We played inspired and unselfish basketball," said Drymon. "We defended at a high level. We had to deal with a lot of adversity in the second half and we did a good job of handling it. I hope this is a springboard game that propels us the rest of the way."

CCC's Latrell Talley scored a game-high 18 points to go along with 11 rebounds. Jaxon Simons scored 17 points, while Zack Rice-Gordon totaled 13 points.

Up next, the Raiders will stay on the road for a Thursday night contest at Hastings JV. Tip-off is at 6 p.m.