February 5, 2007                    

Cowley men hold off Labette, 85-79

In a game that seemed eerily similar to its 74-71 home loss to Johnson County on Jan. 27, the Cowley College men’s basketball team held off a furious rally by Labette to win 85-79 Saturday at W.S. Scott Auditorium.

The Tigers, who watched a 14-point lead evaporate in the final five minutes of its loss against Johnson County, led Labette by 10 points at the end of the first half (41-31) and 17 points (72-55) with 4:46 remaining.

The Cardinals proceeded to go on a 13-3 run to cut Cowley’s lead to 75-68 with 2:25 remaining, and pulled within three points of the Tigers (82-79) after a three-pointer by Charles Neal with 17.4 seconds left.

However, the Tigers’ James Loe made 1-of-2 free-throw attempts with 15.4 seconds left, and Sanijay Watts added a pair of free throws after a missed three-point attempt by Labette’s Ismar Neto as Cowley held on for the win.

“I’m not happy with how we finished the game, but we dominated them for a large part of the game,” Cowley head coach Brian Jackson said. “I don’t know what happens to us late, we spent the last week working on late game situations, we just panicked a little bit. But, we will focus on the positives and realize at least we won the game.”

Watts continued his torrid play as he finished with 22 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Watts went 8-of-12 from the floor and 6-of-6 from the free-throw line. The 6-foot-4 freshman is averaging 20.8 points and 6.6 rebounds in conference play.

Joining Watts in double figures were sophomores Eric Hammond (17 points), Loe (13 points), and Joe Harvey (10 points).

Sean High led Labette with 24 points as he hit 7-of-9 three-point attempts, including a shot from beyond half court to end the first half. Neal added 15 points on 5-of-11 shooting from three-point range.

The Tigers ended up out-shooting Labette 46.7 percent to 40.0 percent from the floor, and out-scored the Cardinals 24-6 from the free-throw line.

The victory improves Cowley’s record to 12-10 overall and 6-4 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. The Tigers are now in a five-way tie for third place in the conference, just one game back of second place Fort Scott.

“We are trying to get on a run here, we have eight games to go,” Jackson said.

Cowley will try to make it three wins in a row when they travel to Kansas City to play the Blue Devils Wednesday at 7 p.m. Kansas City is 16-6 overall and 6-4 in the conference.

“It’s a tough place to play, but if we want to have a shot at getting into post-season play we need to go win on the road,” Jackson said.

The game can be heard on KACY 102.5 FM Arkansas City.

Box score:
Labette (79): Christopher Reed 6-9 0-0 12, Sean High 7-15 3-4 24, Ismar Neto 1-12 2-2 5, Jack Kennedy 0-0 0-0 0, Charles Neal 5-13 0-0 15, Joseph Roberts 1-2 0-2 2, Andrija Tintor 3-11 0-1 6, Jeremy Bragg 2-3 0-0 4, Walter Battle 5-10 1-6 11. Totals: 30-75 6-15 79.

Cowley (85): Sanijay Watts 8-12 6-6 22, Matt Muncy 2-5 3-4 8, Larry Cox 2-4 0-0 4, Ludovic Dovonou 1-3 1-2 3, Joe Harvey 2-12 6-6 10, Eric Hammond 6-8 2-4 17, James Loe 4-12 4-6 13, Nikola Grbicic 3-4 2-5 8. Totals: 28-60 24-33 85.

Three-pointers: Labette 13-26 (Reed 0-1, High 7-9, Neto 1-3, Neal 5-11, Tintor 0-2), Cowley 5-13 (Muncy 1-2, Cox 0-1, Harvey 0-1, Hammond 3-4, Loe 1-5). Rebounds: Labette 27 (Tintor 5), Cowley 41 (Watts 11). Assists: Labette 11 (High 6), Cowley 18 (Loe 6). Turnovers: Labette 19, Cowley 17. Total fouls: Labette 27, Cowley 19. Fouled out: High, Neto. Technicals: Cox.