Cowley’s dream season comes to an end

The top-seeded Cowley College basketball team had its dream season come to an end with a 71-61 loss to second-seeded Seward County Tuesday night in the Region VI title game played at Wichita's Koch Arena.

The game was tied at 61-61 with a minute left. However, the Saints Bruno Mendes' lone basket of the game gave Seward County a 63-61 lead with 55 seconds remaining. The Tigers would then turn the ball over on its next three possessions and the Saints went 8-for-8 from the free-throw line to advance to the NJCAA National Tournament in Hutchinson.

Cowley finishes with its best record in school history (31-3). Seward County (29-5) has now won 16 of its last 17 games, with its only loss in that span coming in double overtime against Barton County.

Cowley played without leading scorer Chris Rhymes (16.5 points per game), who was injured in the win over Coffeyville on Monday.

“Chris being out really, really hurt us,” Cowley head coach Steve Eck said.

Cowley trailed by as many as 14 points (36-22) in the first half. The Tigers scored the final six points of the half to trail 36-28 at halftime.

Cowley would close to within two points of the Saints on four occasions, but were unable to tie or take the lead until Jack Crowder hit a pair of free throws to tie the game at 59-59 with 1:55 remaining.

With the Cowley fans rocking the Roundhouse, the Tigers appeared to have the momentum on their side. Right after Seward County’s Darko Cohardarevic, who finished with a game-high 25 points and 10 rebounds, put the Saints back on top 61-59 with 1:40 left, he fouled out 12 seconds later.

Crowder again hit both free throws, tying the game at 61-61. With the shot clock winding down on the Saints’ next possession, Mendes put in a difficult shot in the lane to give Seward County a lead they would not relinquish.

Seward County out-shot the Tigers 50 percent to 40 percent from the floor.

“They are a tough team to guard, we didn’t do very good guarding tonight,” Eck said. “Give Seward credit for what they did. We never adjusted to the physicality of the game.”

Cowley also struggled from the free-throw line, making just 14-of-28 attempts.
“Unfortunately, we missed too many free throws,” Eck said.

Sophomores Preston Brown and Reggie Cook led Cowley with 18 and 17 points, respectively. Fellow sophomores Montrell McDonald and Eric McKinney (pictured) chipped in with nine and eight points. Those four sophomores along with Rhymes played a huge role in the Tigers capturing their first outright Jayhawk East title since the 1990-91 season.

“Those five sophomores are the heart and soul of this team,” Eck said. “I am going to miss them a bunch.”

Along with setting the school record for wins (31) in a season, Cowley also broke the school record for largest average of victory in a season as they outscored its opponents by an average of 19.2 points per game (80.2 to 61.0). The 1978-79 team set the previous record for average victory margin.

It was a tremendous season for the Tigers in Eck’s first year as head coach.

Box score:
Seward (71): Reggie Chamberlain 6-10 6-6 20, Nick Burns 3-6 2-4 10, Ervin Williams 1-7 2-2 5, Darko Cohardarevic 11-17 1-2 25, Bruno Mendes 1-3 0-0 2, Donald Dixon 2-4 0-0 4, Bryson Hampton 1-3 3-6 5. Totals: 25-50 14-20 71.

Cowley (61): Preston Brown 7-13 3-7 18, Reggie Cook 6-15 3-7 17, Montrell McDonald 3-11 2-6 8, Kyle Hammerschmidt 0-1 0-0 0, Eric McKinney 3-6 2-2 8, Mike Atwater 0-1 0-0 0, Marcus Butler 0-1 1-2 1, Jack Crowder 3-7 3-4 9. Totals: 22-55 14-28 61.

Three-pointers: Seward 7-13 (Chamberlain 2-4, Burns 2-3, Williams 1-1, Cohardarevic 2-4, Mendes 0-1), Cowley 3-11 (Atwater 0-1, Brown 1-4, Cook 2-4, McDonald 0-2). Rebounds: Seward 37 (Cohardarevic 10), Cowley 31 (Brown, McDonald 6). Assists: Seward 11 (Chamberlain, Burns 3), Cowley 14 (McDonald 5). Turnovers: Seward 19, Cowley 15. Total fouls: Seward 20, Cowley 16. Fouled out: Cohardarevic, Williams. Technicals: none.