Cowley men advance to Region VI title game

Getting big second halves from Preston Brown, Montrell McDonald, and Jack Crowder, the top-seeded Cowley College men’s basketball team rallied from a five-point (32-27) halftime deficit to defeat Coffeyville 74-63 Monday night in the semifinals of the Region VI Tournament played at Wichita’s Koch Arena.

The victory advances the Tigers to tonight’s Region VI title game vs. second-seeded Seward County (28-5), which defeated Cloud County 69-54. The title game will be played at 8 p.m.

Cowley is now 31-2 on the season. However, Cowley will have to play the title game without its leading scorer, Chris Rhymes, who suffered an apparent knee injury eight minutes into Monday night’s contest.

With Rhymes out, Cowley fell behind by as many as 10 points (28-18) in the first half. However, in Rhymes absence, Brown (pictured) stepped up his play and scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half.

“Preston’s tough,” Cowley head coach Steve Eck said. “He’s very underrated. He can shoot from the outside, he can play inside.”

With Cowley trailing 34-29 early in the second half, Brown scored seven points during a 12-0 run that saw the Tigers go on top 41-34 with 16:34 remaining.

Cowley’s lead would grow to 51-40 after a basket by Jack Crowder with 13:20 left to play. Crowder came off the bench to score all 10 of his points in the second half.

The Red Ravens cut Cowley’s lead to 64-60 on a pair of free throws by J.J. Seymore with 3:49 remaining. However, McDonald answered with back-to-back baskets to push the Tigers’ lead back to eight points (68-60) and Cowley held on for the 74-63 win.

McDonald finished with a team-high 17 points and nine rebounds, while Eric McKinney chipped in with 12 points and five boards.

Cowley shot 58.6 percent in the second half, while holding Coffeyville to 30 percent shooting. As has been the case all season, the Tigers came out of the halftime intermission ready to go.

“I just told them (at halftime) that you have to dig in, we just got to dig in (defensively),” Eck said. “Coffeyville is very formidable and they know how to do it. We weren’t very tough the first half. We were a lot tougher in the second half.”

Seymore led the Red Ravens with 22 points on 8-of-21 shooting from the floor. Coffeyville lost all three meetings with the Tigers this season and end the year with a record of 24-9.

A win tonight would qualify the Tigers for the NJCAA National Tournament in Hutchinson March 18-22. Cowley has not qualified for the national tournament since the 1956-57 season.

Box score:
Coffeyville (63): J.J. Seymore 8-21 3-3 22, Lenny Daniel 1-5 5-8 7, Jonathan Blake 3-8 3-3 9, Daniel Payne 0-4 1-2 1, Terrance Hill 8-18 0-0 17, Antoine Branch 0-0 0-0 0, Lucas Lumb 0-1 0-0 0, Michael Johnson 0-2 1-2 1, Devron Washington 2-3 2-2 6. Totals: 22-62 15-20 63.

Cowley (74): Preston Brown 6-11 2-3 16, Reggie Cook 2-8 2-2 7, Montrell McDonald 7-13 3-5 17, Kyle Hammerschmidt 3-5 2-2 8, Chris Rhymes 2-3 0-0 4, Eric McKinney 6-9 0-0 12, Jack Crowder 4-8 2-4 10, Mike Atwater 0-0 0-0 0, Marcus Butler 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 30-58 11-16 74.

Three-pointers: Coffeyville 4-19 (Seymore 3-9, Lumb 0-1, Blake 0-2, Payne 0-2, Washington 0-1, Hill 1-4), Cowley 3-11 (Butler 0-1, Brown 2-2, Cook 1-4, McDonald 0-2, Haammerschmidt 0-2). Rebounds: Coffeyville 34 (Blake 8), Cowley 37 (McDonald 9). Assists: Coffeyville 8 (Seymore 4), Cowley 13 (Brown 3). Turnovers: Coffeyville 14, Cowley 15. Total fouls: Coffeyville 17, Cowley 17. Fouled out: Daniel, Brown. Technicals: none.