Tiger men pull into first place tie with Independence

Less than a month after scoring 40 points against Cowley College, Highland’s DeWayne Wright was held scoreless by a ferocious Tiger defense that held the Scotties to 26 percent shooting in a 73-42 win Saturday night in W.S. Scott Auditorium.

“We obviously did a lot better job of guarding him this time,” Cowley head coach Steve Eck said. “I thought everybody that guarded him did a good job against him.”

Playing in front of several former Tiger greats in attendance, the Cowley men led 29-9 12 minutes into the contest and 42-17 after 20 minutes of play. At halftime, four new members were inducted into the Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame. The inductees were, Bill Clarahan, Mark Potter, Suzanne Kerr-Unruh, and Larry Grose.

Feeding off the boisterous home crowd, Cowley never allowed Highland to get within 20 points of the lead in the second half. The victory was the Tigers’ seventh in a row and moved Cowley into a first place tie with Independence in the conference as the Pirates suffered a 81-76 loss at Coffeyville Saturday.

The win improves Cowley’s record to 24-2 overall and 13-1 in the Jayhawk East.
Chris Rhymes led a balanced Tiger attack that saw all nine players score in the win. Rhymes finished with 17 points on 8-of-12 shooting, while Montrell McDonald added 14 points on 7-of-9 shooting. Cowley finished the game shooting 60.4 percent from the floor.

Sophomore post player Eric McKinney was a force on the defensive end as he broke his own school-record for blocks in a game with nine.

“When he just goes out there and has fun he is a pretty darn good ball player,” Eck said.

Cowley will host Labette Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the team’s Homecoming game. The Cardinals have struggled to a record of 5-21 overall and 1-13 in the Jayhawk East.

Box score:
Highland (42): Tyler Nordman 4-8 0-0 8, DeWayne Wright 0-6 0-0 0, Chris Combs 5-11 2-2 15, John Graham 1-6 3-4 5, Brian Mokeski 2-9 0-0 4, Conner Hampton 1-5 0-0 2, Jewell Carter 1-10 0-0 2, Korie Fisher 0-2 0-0 0, Billy Bledsoe 2-4 0-0 4, Kris Holford 0-2 0-0 0, Roderick Eaddy 1-2 0-0 2.

Cowley (73): Preston Brown 4-8 1-2 10, Reggie Cook 3-5 0-0 8, Reggie Cook 3-5 0-0 8, Montrell McDonald 7-9 0-5 14, Kyle Hammerschmidt 2-5 0-0 5, Chris Rhymes 8-12 0-1 17, Mike Atwater 1-1 0-0 2, Marcus Butler 3-6 0-2 7, Zach Miller 1-1 2-3 4, Eric McKinney 3-6 0-2 6. Totals: 32-53 3-15 73.

Three-pointers: Highland 3-16 (Nordman 0-3, Wright 0-2, Combs 3-5, Hampton 0-2, Carter 0-3, Holford 0-1), Cowley 6-10 (Brown 1-1, Cook 2-2, McDonald 0-1, Hammerschmidt 1-3, Rhymes 1-1, Butler 1-2). Rebounds: Highland 23 (Mokeski 7), Cowley 29 (Brown, McDonald 5). Assists: Highland 7 (Combs 3), Cowley 18 (Hammerschmidt 5). Turnovers: Highland 15, Cowley 17. Total fouls: Highland 17, Cowley 11. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.