January 18, 2007                    

Watts' basket with 1.8 seconds left lifts Cowley to 75-74 win

With nine ties and 11 lead changes in the final 20 minutes of the Cowley College men’s basketball game vs. Independence on Wednesday, Tiger freshmen Sanijay Watts’ basket with 1.8 seconds left sent the Cowley fans home happy as Cowley slipped past the Pirates 75-74.

Watts’ basket followed a three-pointer by Independence’s Tyrone Evans that put the Pirates ahead 74-73 with 18.7 seconds remaining. With no timeouts left, Cowley raced the ball up court and got the ball to sophomore guard Joe Harvey. Unable to free himself for a shot, Harvey dumped a difficult pass into Watts, who was double teamed. Watts put up a guarded seven footer that bounced twice on the rim before dropping through the net.
Leonard Parker’s desperation heave was no good as the buzzer sounded, allowing the Tigers to escape with the one-point win.

Watts finished with a game-high 24 points in the win, but no points were bigger than the final two he scored.

“Sanijay just muscled that ball in,” Cowley head coach Brian Jackson said. “Our kids gutted it out and found a way to end the game on top. Hopefully, this will give us some momentum and confidence to continue to play this way for the rest of the season.”

Cowley rallied from a nine-point first half deficit (29-20) to trail just 29-27 at the end of the first half. The Tigers grabbed their first lead of the second half at 45-43 with 12:55 remaining as sophomore point guard Eric Hammond scored seven straight points.

Hammond scored 18 of his season-high 21 points in the second half as he finished the game 8-of-11 from the floor and 5-of-6 from three-point range.

“We just kept battling,” Hammond said. “We needed somebody to step up scoring wise in the second half.”

Larry Cox added 12 points and eight rebounds in the win as Cowley improves to 9-8 overall and 3-2 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. The Tigers shot a blistering 67.9 percent from the floor in the second half.

Evans led Independence with 24 points as he connected on 6-of-11 attempts from three-point range. Parker and Clint Brightman chipped in with 13 and 12 points, respectively. The loss drops Independence’s record to 11-6 overall and 2-2 in the Jayhawk East.
Cowley improves to 6-1 at home. The Tigers will now head on the road to play at Highland Saturday at 3 p.m. The game can be heard on KACY 102.5 FM Arkansas City.
“Hopefully, we can get on a winning streak,” Hammond said. “We have got to use this as momentum and carry it over to Highland.”

Box score:
Independence (74): Leonard Parker 5-11 2-3 13, Clint Brightman 3-8 6-8 12, Rico Seay 1-5 1-3 3, T.J. Stukes 3-9 2-4 9, Tyrone Evans 9-16 0-0 24, Gordon Ward 1-1 0-0 2, James Bush 3-5 0-0 6, Mekan Moss 0-2 1-2 1, Dusty Burdolski 1-2 1-2 4. Totals: 26-59 13-22 74.

Cowley College (75): Sanijay Watts 11-19 2-2 24, Matt Muncy 1-1 0-0 2, Joe Harvey 1-6 2-4 4, Eric Hammond 8-11 0-0 21, James Loe 2-9 2-2 6, Larry Cox 5-9 2-6 12, Ludovic Dovonou 1-1 1-2 3, Nikola Grbicic 1-1 1-4 3. Totals: 30-57 10-20 75.

Three-pointers: Independence 9-19 (Parker 1-2, Brightman 0-1, Seay 0-1, Stukes 1-1, Evans 6-11, Moss 0-1, Burdolski 1-2), Cowley 5-13 (Harvey 0-2, Hammond 5-6, Loe 0-3, Cox 0-2). Rebounds: Independence 33 (Brightman 10), Cowley 35 (Cox 8). Assists: Independence 10 (Parker 4), Cowley 17 (Loe 6). Turnovers: Independence 14, Cowley 13. Total fouls: Independence 18, Cowley 22. Fouled out: Brightman, Loe. Technicals: none.