November 8, 2006                    

Bench play leads Tiger men to 70-58 win over NOC

Shooting 57.4 percent and getting 45 points from its bench, the Cowley College men’s basketball team picked up an impressive 70-58 win over Northern Oklahoma College Tuesday at home.

Sophomore point guard James Loe (pictured) came off the bench to score a game-high 26 points, while sophomore post player Santwon Latunde added 17 points and nine rebounds off the bench.

With Cowley leading by just two points at the end of the first half, Loe sparked the Tigers in the second half as he scored 19 points in the game’s final 20 minutes of play.

“He was disappointed in his performance at Seminole on Saturday and really stepped up for us tonight,” Cowley head coach Brian Jackson said. “He will provide us with toughness throughout the year.”

Cowley led just 60-56 with 1:55 remaining, but sealed the win by making 8-of-10 free-throw attempts down the stretch.

“Our guys found a way to win tonight and that’s a good quality to have in your basketball team,” Jackson said. “This team is just going to get better because we are so young.”

After leading Cowley in scoring each of the first two games, freshman Sanijay Watts was held to just four points on 2-of-6 shooting. However, Cowley still managed to shoot 65 percent in the second half and 57.4 percent for the game.

Abby Kabba and point guard Kellen McCoy scored in double figures for the Mavericks as they finished with 12 and 10 points, respectively. The loss drops NOC’s record to 1-1.

The win improves the Tigers’ record to 2-1 on the season. Cowley will look to avenge its 71-59 loss at Seminole last Saturday when they host the Trojans Saturday at 7 p.m.

“We felt that was a game we had a good chance of winning but just did not finish it out very well,” Jackson said. “This is a chance for us to show some growth and improvement.”

Box score:

NOC (58): Dustin Heiman 2-9 2-2 8, Kellen McCoy 3-11 1-2 10, Nick Kavacevich 4-12 0-1 8, Tony Anderson 3-5 1-2 7, Spencer Schrupp 2-2 0-0 4, Dustin Lewis 5-10 0-0 12, Abby Kabba 2-2 4-7 8, Renardo Rhone 0-0 0-0 0, Mike Prochaska 0-0 0-0 0, Blake Livingston 0-1 1-2 1. Totals: 21-52 9-16 58.

Cowley (70): Sanijay Watts 2-6 0-0 4, Matt Muncy 0-3 0-0 0, Ludovic Dovonou 4-6 2-5 11, Joe Harvey 1-2 4-5 6, Eric Hammond 2-5 0-0 4, Tommy Williams 1-3 0-2 2, James Loe 9-11 7-8 26, Nikola Grbicic 0-0 0-0 0, Santwon Latunde 8-11 1-2 17. Totals: 27-47 14-22 70.

Three-pointers: NOC 7-26 (Heiman 2-8, McCoy 3-9, Kovacevich 0-2, Lewis 2-7), Cowley 2-8 (Dovonou 1-1, Harvey 0-1, Hammond 0-1, Williams 0-2, Loe 1-3). Rebounds: NOC 26 (Kovacevich 8), Cowley 34 (Latunde 9). Assists: 8 (Hammond 4), NOC 15 (Kovacevich 6). Turnovers: NOC 17, Cowley 15. Total fouls: NOC 22, Cowley 17. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.