March 6, 2008

Tigers advance to Wichita, tie school-record for wins

Cowley College basketball fans witnessed history Wednesday night at W.S. Scott Auditorium as the No. 9-ranked Tiger men tied the school-record for wins in a season (29) with a 78-44 victory over Butler Community College in the first-round of the Region VI Tournament.

The last time Cowley won 29 games in a season came way back in the 1952-53 season as that year’s team finished 29-5 and was the national runner-up. The top-seeded Tigers advance to play fourth-seeded Barton County Sunday at 1 p.m. at Wichita State University’s Koch Arena.

The Cougars advanced to Wichita thanks to a 89-84 overtime win against Allen County Wednesday in Great Bend. Barton County (23-7) has won seven games in a row, while Cowley (29-2) is riding a 12-game winning streak “Barton wants to score a lot of points and are a high energy team,” Cowley head coach Steve Eck said. “It will be a tough one.”

On Wednesday, Cowley jumped out to an 18-4 lead 11 minutes into the game, and led by as many as 23 points (36-13) before the Grizzlies scored the final seven points of the half.

Cowley scored eight quick points to open the second half to lead 44-20, and Butler never threatened again. The Tigers out-shot the Grizzlies 57.4 percent to 27 percent from the floor.

“I thought we went out and really guarded well,” Eck said.

Chris Rhymes led all scorers with 22 points, while Montrell McDonald finished with 19 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists, four blocks and three steals. Jack Crowder came off the bench to score 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting.

Kevin Sechrist led Butler with 12 points. The Grizzlies, which made just 4-of-31 three-point attempts, finish the season with a record of 9-21.

Following the victory coach Eck spoke to the crowd and thanked them for its support throughout the season. The Tigers hope to have that support in Wichita as they attempt to make it to the national tournament in Hutchinson for the first time since the 1956-57 season.

 “There will be eight teams in Wichita, one of those teams is going to leave happy and seven of those teams are going to leave disappointed,” Eck said. “We just need to show some pride and see what happens.”

Box score:
Butler (44): Maurice Colter 2-10 0-1 4, Kevin Sechrist 5-12 1-1 12, Avery Richardson 3-12 0-0 7, Dominique Ngniman 1-2 1-2 3, Logan Stutz 3-9 3-5 9, Markus White 1-5 1-4 3, Cody Arnold 1-7 0-0 3, Marcus Batiste 1-4 0-0 3, Kiel Riemann 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 17-63 6-13 44.

Cowley (78): Preston Brown 3-5 1-2 7, Reggie Cook 2-6 1-1 5, Montrell McDonald 7-10 4-5 19, Kyle Hammerschmidt 0-1 0-0 0, Chris Rhymes 11-16 0-1 22, Mike Atwater 0-0 0-0 0, Marcus Butler 0-5 1-2 1, Jack Crowder 6-7 0-0 12, Zach Miller 2-4 0-0 4, Eric McKinney 4-7 0-0 8. Totals: 35-61 7-11 78.

Three-pointers: Butler 4-31 (Colter 0-5, Sechrist 1-4, Richardson 1-9, Stutz 0-2, Arnold 1-6, Batiste 1-4, Riemann 0-1), Cowley 1-7 (Brown 0-1, Cook 0-2, McDonald 1-2, Rhymes 0-1, Butler 0-1). Rebounds: Butler 29 (Stutz 11), Cowley 40 (McDonald 11). Assists: Butler 8 (Colter 5), Cowley 21 (McDonald 7). Turnovers: Butler 19, Cowley 16. Total fouls: Butler 12, Cowley 15. Fouled out: Brown. Technicals: none.