November 10, 2005

Tiger men come up just short at NOC, 74-71

Following a lopsided loss at Cloud County on Saturday, the Cowley College men’s basketball team came back with a much better effort at Northern Oklahoma College (Tonkawa) on Wednesday. However, Julio Anthony’s three-point attempt at the buzzer was off the mark, and the Mavericks held on for a 74-71 win over the Tigers.

The Tigers rallied from an 11-point deficit (58-47) with 8:24 left to play, to pull within two points of the Mavericks (73-71) on a three-pointer by Anthony with 12.9 seconds left.

After NOC’s Mike McNeil, who went 12-of-20 from the free-throw line, made 1-of-2 attempts at the line with 6.5 seconds remaining, Cowley raced the ball up court and had a chance at the tie, but came up just short.

Cowley got big games from freshman point guard Josh Cummings and Anthony. Cummings poured in 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting, while Anthony finished with 21 points. Sophomore Marcus Watts added 10 points and nine rebounds for the Tigers.

NOC freshman Egidijus Budrikis scored 18 of his 24 points in the first half as the Mavericks built a 36-31 halftime lead. The Tigers got as close as one-point of the lead in the second half, but were never able to get over the hump. The loss drops Cowley’s record to 0-3 on the season.

Cowley out-shot NOC 48.1 percent to 46.9 percent from the floor, but went just 12-of-22 from the free-throw line. The Mavericks ended up out-scoring the Tigers by nine points (21-12) at the line.

Cowley will look to break into the win column on Saturday as they will host the St. Gregory’s JV at 8 p.m.

The game can heard on KACY 102.5 FM.

Box score:

Cowley (71): Cummings 7-10 2-3 20, Anthony 8-19 3-3 21, Watts 3-10 3-5 10, Santwon Latunde 3-6 2-4 8, Matt Muncy 1-1 2-2 4, Andy Bonczyk 1-2 0-0 3, Lionel Saban 1-1 0-4 2, Dane Kelly 1-3 0-0 3, James Franklin 0-0 0-1 0, Justin Houser 0-0 0-0 0, Joe Harvey 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 25-52 12-22 71.

NOC (74): Deangelo Garrett 5-8 0-1 10, Tony Anderson 1-4 0-0 2, Dustin Heiman 2-7 1-2 6, Nathan Geiser 3-8 4-4 12, Mike McNeil 1-7 12-20 14, Preston Moore 0-0 0-0 0, Kendall Smith 0-0 1-2 1, Egidijus Budrikus 9-11 2-3 24, Spencer Schrupp 0-1 0-0 0, Chris Mitchem 2-3 1-2 5. Totals: 23-49 21-34 74.