January 25, 2007                    

Tiger men fall flat in second half of 79-62 loss at
20th-ranked Coffeyville

Hanging tough for a half at conference leading Coffeyville Wednesday night, the Cowley College men’s basketball team suffered a dismal second half as the 20th-ranked Red Ravens pulled away for a 79-62 win.

The Tigers trailed Coffeyville by just a point (37-36) at the end of the first half. However, the Red Ravens scored the first seven points of the second half and opened a double digit lead (48-38) after a pair of free throws by Brandon Kennedy with 15:29 remaining.

Cowley would cut Coffeyville’s lead to six on four different occasions, the last time coming at 54-48 after a basket by freshman Sanijay Watts with 10:30 left to play. But, once again, Coffeyville responded by going on a 16-4 run to open its lead to 70-52 with 6:30 remaining.

The Tigers could not mount a rally as they fell to 10-9 overall and 4-3 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. The victory improves Coffeyville’s record to 16-3 overall and 6-1 in the Jayhawk East.

“We can play with them for 20 minutes, but it takes an unbelievable amount of toughness and competitiveness to beat someone like this in their own house,” Cowley head coach Brian Jackson said. “It’s unfortunate we did not take care of an opportunity to get ourselves into first place in the conference.”

A win would have moved Cowley into a first place tie with Coffeyville, instead the loss drops Cowley into a tie for sixth in the Jayhawk East.

Watts led Cowley with 21 points and seven rebounds, while James Loe added 18 points while playing all 40 minutes. Freshman Nikola Grbicic came off the bench to add 10 points as he went 4-of-5 from the floor and 2-of-2 from the line.

Barry Eberhardt led four Red Ravens in double figures as he finished with 20 points and nine rebounds. Eberhardt went 10-of-10 from the free-throw line as Coffeyville made 22-of-26 free-throw attempts as a team.

Cowley will return to Arkansas City to play three straight home games beginning Saturday when they host Johnson County at 7 p.m. The Cavaliers have struggled to a record of 6-13 overall and 1-6 in the conference.

Jackson is hoping Cowley can use the next three home games as an opportunity to get the team some momentum as the Tigers are 7-1 at home this season.

“Maybe we can get on a winning streak and be prepared to go on the road,” Jackson said.

Box score:
Cowley (62): Sanijay Watts 10-16 1-2 21, Matt Muncy 1-3 0-0 3, Eric Hammond 2-8 0-0 4, James Loe 5-15 5-6 18, Joe Harvey 0-3 2-2 2, Larry Cox 1-3 2-3 4, Ludovic Dovonou 0-0 0-0 0, Nikola Grbicic 4-5 2-2 10. Totals: 23-53 12-15 62.

Coffeyville (79): Aaron Jackson 0-1 0-0 0, Tyler Thompson 1-4 1-1 3, Daniel Payne 4-5 5-5 13, Brandon Kennedy 5-11 2-6 13, Barry Eberhardt 5-7 10-10 20, J.J. Seymore 3-7 0-0 7, Lucas Lumb 3-8 0-0 9, Learie Duncan 0-1 0-0 0, Papa Oppong 0-1 4-4 4, Ja’Mal Stewart 0-3 0-0 0, Tarod Sanders 5-8 0-0 10. Totals: 26-56 22-26 79.

Three-pointers: Cowley 4-12 (Muncy 1-1, Cox 0-1, Hammond 0-1, Loe 3-9), Coffeyville 5-21 (Jackson 0-1, Seymore 1-4, Thompson 0-3, Lumb 3-6, Oppong 0-1, Stewart 0-1, Kennedy 1-4, Eberhardt 0-1). Rebounds: Cowley 29 (Watts 7), Coffeyville 37 (Eberhardt 9). Assists: Cowley 10 (Hammond 5), Coffeyville 11 (Kennedy 5). Turnovers: Cowley 15, Coffeyville 13. Total fouls: Cowley 19, Coffeyville 19. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.