November 2, 2005

Tigers drop season opener to Cloud County 73-68

Opening its season at home Tuesday, the Cowley College men’s basketball team battled hard but could not overcome its tough shooting luck as they fell to Cloud County 73-68 inside W.S. Scott Auditorium/Dan Kahler Court.

Despite shooting just 32.1 percent from the floor in the first half of play, the Tigers trailed the Thunderbirds by only a point (31-30) at the half, thanks to their defense forcing 13 turnovers.

Cowley started to find its shooting touch early in the second half, especially sophomore Julio Anthony. After making just 1-of-7 shots from the floor in the first half, Anthony scored 11 points in the first nine minutes of the second half.

Following a pair of baskets by 6-9 freshman post player Santwon Latunde, the Tigers led 54-52 with 9:30 left to play. However, Cowley would suffer through a six-minute scoreless drought that allowed Cloud County to turn a two-point deficit into a 67-54 lead with 3:30 remaining.

Thunderbird sophomore Reid Hein hit a three-pointer to start Cloud County’s 15-0 run, and hit another three ball to cap the run.

To the Tigers credit, they did not stop fighting as they used a 9-3 run to cut the Thunderbirds lead to 70-63 with just under a minute left to play. However, Cloud County would make 3-of-4 free-throw attempts in the game’s final minute of play as they held on for the five-point win.

Cowley head coach Brian Jackson was disappointed to lose in his first game as the Tigers head coach.

“We have got to learn to compete for 40 minutes and not just the last four if we want to be a great basketball team,” Jackson said.

Cloud ended up out-shooting the Tigers 49.0 percent to 40 percent from the floor, and out-rebounded Cowley 41-30.

“If you don’t rebound the basketball it is going to be tough to win games,” Jackson said.

Anthony led Cowley in the defeat as he finished with a game-high 20 points on 7-of-18 shooting from the floor. Fellow sophomore Marcus Watts also had a big game as he finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds.

A couple of freshmen had nice starts to their Cowley careers as Latunde finished with 10 points and five rebounds, and 6-5 forward Matt Muncy added seven points on 3-of-3 shooting from the floor.

Cloud was led by Hein’s 14 points, all of which came in the second half. Freshman center Cassin Diggs added 11 points and nine rebounds for the Thunderbirds, who begin the season with a record of 1-0.

Cowley, which begins the season with a record of 0-1, will get a chance to avenge the defeat on Saturday when they travel to Concordia to face the Thunderbirds at 8 p.m.

“We would like to have won our home opener, but we get Cloud again at their place on Saturday and it would be nice if we could return the favor to them,” Jackson said. “We have got some good kids, hopefully they will learn from this and we will work to correct our problem areas.”

Box score:

Cloud (73): Mamadou Sy 4-5 0-1 8, Reed Hein 4-10 2-2 14, Cassin Diggs 5-8 1-2 11, Geremey Gibson 2-3 3-4 7, James Williams 2-8 5-9 11, B.J. Nimocks 2-3 1-2 5, Quentin Turner 0-2 0-0 0, Mark Herbster 2-6 2-2 8, Egan Grafel 1-1 0-0 3, Bret Shaw 1-1 2-2 4, Mark Lytle 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 24-49 16-24 73.

Cowley (68): Marcus Watts 5-15 6-9 16, Lionel Saban 0-2 0-0 0, Josh Cummings 2-6 0-0 6, Julio Anthony 7-18 5-6 20, Dane Kelly 1-4 3-4 5, Jay Crayton 0-0 0-1 0, Andy Bonczyk 1-3 0-0 2, Joe Harvey 1-2 0-0 2, Matt Muncy 3-3 1-2 7, Santwon Latunde 4-7 2-2 10, Justin Houser 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 24-60 17-24 68.