January 29, 2007                    

Cowley men blow lead, lose to Johnson County 74-71

Leading Johnson County 68-54 with less than five minutes left to play in Saturday night’s game at W.S. Scott Auditorium, the Cowley College men’s basketball team could not close out the game as the Cavaliers outscored the Tigers 20-3 down the stretch and rallied for the 74-71 win.

Johnson County entered the game with just one conference win and was 6-13 overall. The loss left everyone shocked, including Cowley head coach Brian Jackson.

“It’s disappointing because every conference game is important,” Jackson said. “You can’t take a night off or anybody can beat you. It’s unfortunate we let one slip away.”
Sophomore guard Aaron Linn spearheaded the Cavaliers’ furious rally as he scored 10 of his game-high 35 points in the game’s final 4:49 of play.

Cowley led 70-62 with a minute left, but saw it’s lead cut to 71-68 after a basket by Linn with 33.9 seconds remaining. The Tigers were then called for a five-second violation on the ensuing inbounds play, thus giving possession of the basketball back to Johnson County.

The Cavaliers went inside and got a bucket from post player Anthony Spencer to cut Cowley’s lead to 71-70 with 20.3 seconds remaining. Once again, Cowley had trouble getting the ball inbounds as Matt Muncy’s inbounds pass was stolen by Linn, who dished the ball to Spencer for the lay-in and a 72-71 Johnson County lead with 15.5 seconds left.

The Tigers still had a chance for the win, but sophomore guard James Loe’s 17-footer was short with 1.5 seconds left, and Johnson County got possession of the basketball after a jump ball was called on the fight for the rebound.

However, Cowley’s Larry Cox stole the inbounds pass at half court, but he then made the mistake of calling a timeout, which the Tigers had none left. Because Cowley had no timeouts left, the Tigers were called for a technical foul. Linn sank both free throws to put the Cavaliers ahead 74-71 with 0.5 seconds left.

With one final chance at sending the game to overtime, Cowley was awarded possession of the basketball at half court following the free throws on the technical. Muncy got off a desperation three-pointer from the left corner, but the shot struck the side of the backboard and Johnson County escaped with the improbable win.

Cowley freshman forward Sanijay Watts continued his torrid play in the defeat as he finished with 24 points. Sophomore Joe Harvey scored all 11 of his points in the second half, while James Loe added 10. Freshman post player Nikola Grbicic came off the bench to finish with nine points and nine rebounds.

Jonathan Jackson and Spencer joined Linn in double figures for Johnson County as they finished with 15 and 11 points, respectively. The win improves the Cavaliers’ record to 7-13 overall and 2-6 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division.

Cowley, which is now 10-10 overall and 4-4 in the Jayhawk East, will host Allen County Wednesday at 7 p.m. The Red Devils are currently in a four-way tie for third place in the Jayhawk East with a record of 15-5 overall and 5-3 in the conference.
“Every team is good from here on out and if you don’t come to play every night you can get beat, like tonight,” Jackson said.

Box score:
Johnson County (74): Russell Revels 2-8 3-3 7, Jonathan Jackson 6-13 3-4 15, Aaron Linn 11-19 11-14 35, Matt Smith 1-4 0-0 2, Patrick Nemechek 0-5 2-2 2, Anthony Spencer 5-9 1-2 11, Caleb Bradley 1-1 0-0 2. Totals: 26-59 20-25 74.

Cowley (71): Sanijay Watts 9-19 5-6 24, Matt Muncy 1-4 0-0 2, Larry Cox 4-9 1-2 9, Ludovic Dovonou 2-5 0-0 4, Joe Harvey 3-7 5-9 11, Eric Hammond 1-3 0-0 2, James Loe 3-4 3-5 10, Nikola Grbicic 3-6 3-4 9. Totals: 26-57 17-26 71.

Three-pointers:
Johnson 2-11 (Revels 0-1, Linn 2-4, Smith 0-1, Nemechek 0-5), Cowley 2-10 (Muncy 0-1, Cox 0-1, Dovonou 0-2, Harvey 0-1, Hammond 0-2, Loe 2-3). Rebounds: Johnson 28 (Linn 5), Cowley 40 (Grbicic 9). Assists: Johnson 2 (Jackson, Linn 1), Cowley 7 (Muncy, Grbicic 2). Turnovers: Johnson 7, Cowley 16. Total fouls: Johnson 22, Cowley 19. Fouled out: Nemechek. Technicals: none.