February 8, 2007                    

Cowley men come up short in 65-57 loss at Kansas City

Scoring just three points in the final four minutes and 25 seconds of its game at Kansas City on Wednesday, the Cowley College men’s basketball team suffered a 65-57 road loss.

The Tigers had rallied from a 28-24 halftime deficit to lead the majority of the second half. Cowley grabbed its first lead of the game at 34-33 on a basket by freshman Nikola Grbicic with 15:35 left to play. The Tigers would lead by as many as six points on two occasions and led 54-51 after a three-pointer by sophomore James Loe with 4:25 remaining.

However, that would be the last basket Cowley would score. After Kansas City rattled off nine straight points to lead 60-54, Loe was fouled on a three-point attempt. Loe hit all three free-throws to pull the Tigers within three (60-57) with 1:16 remaining.
But, with the shot clock running down, Kansas City’s Ryan Spearman drained a back breaking three-pointer to put the Blue Devils up six (63-57) with 41 seconds left.
Loe would miss a three-pointer on the other end and David Nurse hit a pair of free throws to finish the scoring.

The loss drops Cowley into a tie for sixth place in the conference as Cowley is 12-11 overall and 6-5 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. Three teams, including Kansas City, are tied for third in the conference with a record of 7-4.

Cowley head coach Brian Jackson was disappointed to see his team not capitalize on a chance to pick up the road win.

“We just can not get over the hump and get a stop when we need it,” Jackson said. “It’s unfortunate because we led most of the second half.”

Cowley freshman Sanijay Watts had another big game in the defeat as he finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds. Joe Harvey was the only other Tiger in double figures as he finished with 10 points on 5-of-14 shooting.

Kansas City out-shot Cowley 46 percent to 32.9 percent from the floor. The Tigers especially struggled from three-point range, making just 4-of-26 three-point attempts.
The Tigers played without freshman Larry Cox (7.8 points and 5.5 rebounds), who was serving the first of a two-game suspension for a flagrant technical foul he was issued in Cowley’s 85-79 win over Labette on Saturday.

Nurse led all scorers with 25 points as he went 5-of-8 from three-point range. Spearman joined Nurse in double figures as he finished with 13 points and seven rebounds. Kansas City is now 17-6 overall and 7-4 in the Jayhawk East.

Cowley will look to get back on track when they host last place Neosho County Saturday at 7 p.m. Five new members will be inducted into the Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame at halftime of the game.

Box score:
Cowley (57): Sanijay Watts 9-19 2-2 20, Matt Muncy 2-7 0-0 4, Joe Harvey 5-14 0-0 10, Eric Hammond 3-10 0-0 9, James Loe 1-10 3-3 6, Ludovic Dovonou 1-5 0-0 2, Nikola Grbicic 2-5 2-3 6. Totals: 23-70 7-8.

Kansas City (65): Joe Hutchingson 2-8 0-0 5, Ryan Spearman 5-11 0-0 13, Kamrik Lamont 1-5 1-1 3, David Nurse 7-11 6-8 25, Eric Nitsche 1-4 0-0 3, Tyler Fruehling 0-1 0-0 0, Greg Smith 2-4 0-1 4, Mike Sylvara 2-3 2-2 6, Dominique Grayson 2-2 0-0 4, Maurice Knight 1-1 0-0 2. Totals: 23-50 9-12 65.

Three-pointers: Cowley 4-26 (Muncy 0-2, Harvey 0-4, Hammond 3-9, Loe 1-9, Dovonou 0-2), Kansas City 10-25 (Hutchingson 1-3, Spearman 3-9, Nurse 5-8, Nitsche 1-4, Fruehling 0-1). Rebounds: Cowley 39 (Watts 13), Kansas City 38 (Spearman 7). Assists: Cowley 16 (Watts, Muncy 4), Kansas City 17 (Spearman 4). Turnovers: Cowley 8, Kansas City 13. Total fouls: Cowley 16, Kansas City 11. Fouled out: Muncy, Harvey. Technicals: none.