October 19, 2006                    

Tiger basketball team wins exhibition against NWOSU 72-63

Gearing up for the 2006-07 basketball season, the Cowley College men’s basketball team won a home exhibition game against Northwestern Oklahoma State University on Wednesday by a score of 72-63.

“We took a big step forward to where we want to be, but we still have some things to work on,” Cowley assistant coach Brandon Lesovsky said.

The Tigers got a game-high 17 points from freshman Sanijay Watts (pictured), while sophomore transfer James Loe added 14.

The Tigers scored the first seven points of the game and never trailed in the nine-point win. However, Cowley led by just five points (36-31) at the end of the first half, and never led by more than 12 (54-42).

The Rangers pulled within five points of the Tigers (67-62) with just less than a minute to play, but Cowley hit five free throws in the game’s final 57 seconds as they held on for the win.

Cowley did most of its damage from inside the paint as they made just one three-pointer in the second half and five for the game. Loe and Watts each hit a pair of threes, while sophomore point guard Eric Hammond hit the other.

Free-throw shooting will be an area of emphasis for the Tigers as they made just 11-of-25 free-throw attempts.

“We definitely have to shoot it better from the line,” Lesovsky said. “But, overall, I thought we shot the ball pretty well.”

Junior guard Shane Hansen led a balanced Rangers attack as he finished with 11 points. NWOSU had five players score at least nine points in the defeat.

Cowley will play another home exhibition against the Kansas Wesleyan University junior varsity at 1 p.m. Oct. 28, before opening the season at home Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. against the Southwestern College junior varsity.

Scoring:

Cowley (72): Watts 17, Loe 14, Kenny Daniels 8, Nikola Grbicic 6, Ludovic Dovonou 7, Santwon Latunde 5, Eric Hammond 5, Joe Harvey 4, Matt Muncy 4, Rashad Parker 2.

NWOSU (63): Hansen 11, Davis 10, Burney 10, Pecka 9, Surrell 9, Nunez 5, Brown 4, Johnson 3, Eichenberger 2.