November 16, 2006                    

Tigers’ rally falls short at NOC

The Cowley College men’s basketball team dug a hole too deep to climb out of Thursday night in Tonkawa, Okla., as the Tigers trailed Northern Oklahoma College by as many as 24 points in their 70-60 loss.

The Mavericks rode the hot shooting of Kellen McCoy and Kendall Smith to a 41-17 lead late in the first half. McCoy and Smith each hit four three pointers in the half as NOC took a 43-25 lead into the halftime intermission.

The Mavericks hit an astounding 11-of-13 three-point attempts in the opening half of play and finished 15-of-21 from three-point range.

Trailing 57-34 with just under 11 minutes left to play, the Tigers proceeded to go on a 17-3 run to cut the Mavericks’ lead to 60-51 with four minutes remaining.

However, the rally would be too little too late as NOC held on for the 10-point win.

“Our guys could have won this game, but we were not prepared to win,” Cowley head coach Brian Jackson said. “We did not play until we got in trouble. Northern Oklahoma outplayed and out hustled us.”

McCoy led the Mavericks with 26 points as he hit 6-of-7 three-point attempts, while Smith went 5-of-7 from three-point range and finished with 17 points.

Sophomore post player Santwon Latunde led Cowley with 17 points and 11 rebounds, while sophomore point guard James Loe added 17 points and four rebounds.

The loss drops Cowley’s record to 4-2 on the season, while NOC improves to 3-2. The Tigers will now prepare to play at the Pratt Community College Tournament next Thursday and Friday in Pratt. On Thursday, Cowley will play Seward County at 6 p.m. On Friday, the Tigers will play Pratt at 8 p.m.

“It’s going to be tough, both those teams are playing well,” Jackson said. “Hopefully, our kids can grow up and make some steps between now and then.”

Box score:

Cowley (60): Sanijay Watts 1-4 0-0 2, Matt Muncy 0-1 2-2 2, Ludovic Dovonou 0-2 0-0 0, Joe Harvey 3-6 4-4 10, Eric Hammond 1-5 0-0 3, Larry Cox 0-4 0-0 0, Damen Harris 4-8 0-2 9, James Loe 5-12 4-4 17, Nikola Grbicic 0-0 0-1 0, Tyler Blackburn 0-0 0-0 0, Santwon Latunde 5-10 7-9 17. Totals: 19-52 17-22 60.

NOC (70) Kellen McCoy 7-9 6-7 26, Spencer Schrupp 2-4 2-3 6, Nick Koacevich 3-8 0-0 8, Dustin Heiman 2-4 2-4 8, Tony Anderson 1-6 0-0 2, Warren Lewis 0-3 2-4 2, Kendall Smith 5-7 2-2 17, Abby Kabba 0-5 1-2 1, Renardo Rhine 0-1 0-0 0, Mike Prochaska 0-1 0-0 0, Blake Livingston 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 20-50 15-22 70.

Three-pointers: Cowley 5-11 (Muncy 0-1, Hammond 1-2, Cox 0-1, Harris 1-2, Loe 3-5), NOC 15-21 (McCoy 6-7, Smith 5-7, Kovacevich 2-2, Heiman 2-3, Lewis 0-1, Rhone 0-1). Rebounds: Cowley 39 (Latunde 11), NOC 24 (Schrupp, Kovacevich, Rhone 4). Assists: Cowley 9 (Watts, Harvey, Latunde 2), NOC 17 (Lewis 7). Turnovers: Cowley 18, NOC 12. Total fouls: Cowley 22, NOC 21. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.