February 25, 2008

Lady Tigers win second straight over conference leader

Three days after knocking Labette out of a first place tie in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division, the Cowley College women’s basketball team defeated Independence 57-45 Saturday at W.S. Scott Auditorium and knocked the Lady Pirates out of a tie for first in the conference.

With the wins over the previous conference co-leaders, Cowley has moved to just one game behind Labette and Independence for second place in the conference, and just one and a half games behind conference leading Coffeyville.

Cowley has won three games in a row and is now 17-11 overall and 12-4 in the Jayhawk East. The loss drops Independence to 20-8 overall and 13-3 in the conference.

“I think we are playing really well right now,” Cowley head coach Todd Clark said.

After shooting just 25 percent in the first half and heading into the locker room tied at 19-19 after 20 minutes of play, Cowley shot a blistering 68.4 percent in the second half.

Trailing 28-25 after a three-pointer by the Lady Pirates’ Chelsea Trimble with 16:17 remaining, the Lady Tigers used a 13-0 run to lead 38-28 with just over 11 minutes left to play.

Independence would get no closer than within eight points of the Lady Tigers the rest of the way.

“I thought our players fought really hard,” Clark said. “I was really happy with the win.”

Freshmen Elena Yankova and Gabbie Curtis combined to score 43 of the Lady Tigers’ 57 points. Yankova led all scorers with 22 points, while Curtis finished with 21 points, five rebounds, five assists, and four steals.

“Those two played really well,” Clark said.

Ashley Gladden led Independence with 15 points in the defeat. Trimble added 14, but scored just two points over the game’s final 16 minutes of play.

Cowley will now prepare for its final regular season home game as they will host Fort Scott Wednesday at 5 p.m. Fort Scott is 12-13 overall and 5-11 in the Jayhawk East. The Lady Tigers rallied from a seven point halftime deficit to win at Fort Scott on Jan. 26 by a score of 65-55.

“They are a good team and if we don’t play well they will beat us,” Clark said. “We hope to have a lot of people come out for sophomore night, we really appreciate the support.”

Box score:
Independence (45): Chelsea Trimble 4-10 2-2 14, Ashley Gladden 7-13 1-2 15, Rhea Codio 0-3 0-0 0, Aubrey Jones 0-1 0-0 0, Jolene Tamboue 2-7 0-3 4, Therese Hager 0-3 0-0 0, Becca Holman 2-3 0-0 6, Robertson Olanya 1-1 0-0 3, Morgan Clark 0-4 0-2 0, Kiara Marshall 1-9 0-0 3. Totals: 17-54 3-9 45.

Cowley (57): Elena Yankova 9-19 1-2 22, Bebe Holloway 3-6 1-3 7, Gabbie Curtis 6-11 9-12 21, Whitney Williams 1-8 0-0 2, Lauren Cherry 1-3 2-5 4, Noelle Jackson 0-0 0-0 0, Alexis Wright 0-0 1-2 1. Totals: 20-47 14-24 57.

Three-pointers: Independence 8-22 (Trimble 4-8, Codio 0-2, Tamboue 0-1, Holman 2-2, Olanya 1-1, Marshall 1-8), Cowley 3-3 (Yankova 3-3). Rebounds: Independence 34 (Tamboue 12), Cowley 26 (Holloway 8). Assists: Independence 13 (Codio 3), Cowley 9 (Curtis 5). Turnovers: Independence 26, Cowley 18. Total fouls: Independence 18, Cowley 12. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.