March 13, 2006

Tiger men have season come to end with 67-61 loss to Cloud County

In a game that featured eight ties in the second half, the seventh-seeded Cowley College men’s basketball team did not score in the final 5:22 of play as second-seeded Cloud County defeated the Tigers 67-61 in the second-round of the Region VI Tournament played Sunday night at Wichita State University’s Charles Koch Arena.

The loss snaps Cowley’s three-game winning streak, and ends the Tigers’ season with a record of 16-16 overall.

“I hate that we couldn’t have advanced a little further,” Cowley head coach Brian Jackson said. “We just could not find a way to make the plays down the stretch, and Cloud hit shots when they needed to.”

After falling behind 34-29 at the end of the first half, Cowley rallied to tie the game at 42-42 on a three-point play by sophomore Julio Anthony, and took its first lead of the second half at 49-47 on a pair of free-throws by Anthony with 12:09 remaining.

Neither team would hold a lead larger than two points over the next 11:41 of play as the squads continued to trade baskets. Cowley would hold its final lead of the game at 61-59 on a basket by freshman post player Santwon Latunde with 5:22 remaining.

Even with Cowley going scoreless over the final 5:22 of play, the Tigers still had chances to win as they missed two potential game-tying three-point attempts in the final two minutes of play and were only down 64-61 before Cloud County’s Reed Hein made three-of-four free-throw attempts in the game’s final 28 seconds.

Cloud County finished the game on an 8-0 run as they improved to 24-8 overall. The Thunderbirds advance to play Independence tonight at 7 p.m. Freshman post player Cassin Diggs was a monster inside as he led Cloud County with 22 points and 11 rebounds despite being double teamed the majority of the contest. Hein added 15 points for the Thunderbirds, which shot 46.3 percent from the floor.

Anthony led Cowley with 21 points in his final game in a Tiger uniform. Marcus Watts and Latunde chipped in with 13 and 12 points, respectively. Cowley finished the season winning 10 of its final 16 games.

“I am proud of the kids, they fought really hard and had a nice finish to the season,” Jackson said.

Cowley will say goodbye to six sophomores. The sophomores are, Anthony, Watts, Lionel Saban, Dane Kelly, James Franklin and Jay Crayton.

“Those kids grew a lot from a year ago, and did a lot for us,” Jackson said. “I hate to see them go, but I wish them a lot of luck in the future.”

Box score:

Cowley (61): Marcus Watts 4-10 4-5 13, Lionel Saban 0-2 0-0 0, Julio Anthony 6-12 5-5 21, James Franklin 2-5 2-2 6, Santwon Latunde 4-10 4-4 12, Josh Cummings 2-3 0-0 5, Joe Harvey 0-0 0-0 0, Dane Kelly 0-0 0-0 0, Matt Muncy 2-3 0-0 4, Justin Houser 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 20-45 15-16 61.

Colby (67): B.J. Nimocks 2-3 0-0 4, Mamadou Sy 1-4 1-5 3, Reid Hein 4-12 3-4 15, Geremey Gibson 4-11 0-0 8, James Williams 4-8 0-1 9, Quentin Turner 0-0 0-0 0, Mark Herbster 0-0 0-0 0, Heath Baird 0-0 0-0 0, Cassin Diggs 8-14 6-8 22, Egan Graffel 0-0 0-0 0, Mike Lytle 2-2 1-1 6. Totals: 25-54 11-19 67.

Three-pointers: Cowley 6-16 (Watts 1-4, Cummings 1-2, Anthony 4-7, Franklin 0-2, Muncy 0-1), Colby 6-16 (Hein 4-11, Gibson 0-1, Lytle 1-1, Williams 1-3). Rebounds: Cowley 26 (Latunde 9), Colby 35 (Diggs 11). Assists: Cowley 3 (Anthony 2), Colby 12 (Lytle 5). Turnovers: Cowley 16, Colby 11. Total fouls: Cowley 19, Colby 14. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.