March 10, 2008

Lady Tigers keep moving on, beat Seward County 67-52

Starting fast, the Cowley College women’s basketball team raced out to an 11-2 lead over Seward County and never trailed in a 67-52 win over the Lady Saints Friday in the second-round of the Region VI Tournament played at Wichita State University’s Koch Arena.

Cowley had not advanced past the second round since the 2002-03 season. Two of the Lady Tigers’ losses in the Region VI Tournament came at the hands of Seward County. In those losses, Seward jumped out early on the Tigers and never let up.

So, Cowley head coach Todd Clark preached to his team to get off to a good start.

"I told them before hand that if we didn't, they were going to bury us," Clark said. "It was nice to get a couple of shots and get off to a good lead."

Cowley led by as many as 12 points (21-9 in the first half before Tegan Cunningham, the Lady Saints all-time leading scorer, scored seven straight points to cut Cowley’s lead to 30-26 at halftime.

Cowley continued to lead throughout the second half and the score was 52-46 after a basket by Seward’s Haley Rogers with 7:23 remaining. Instead of folding down the stretch, the Lady Tigers began to take over the game as they would score 14 straight points to lead 66-46 with 2:18 remaining.

Coach Clark even had the luxury of pulling his starters with just over a minute remaining as Cowley won its seventh consecutive game and improved to 21-9 on the season.

The victory moves Cowley to the semifinals of the Region VI Tournament where they will face Cloud County (25-6), which defeated top-seeded Coffeyville 77-47 on Friday. The game will take place at 1 p.m. today at Wichita State University’s Koch Arena.

The Lady Thunderbirds defeated Cowley 79-62 Nov. 9 in Arkansas City.

“Every body is good now, so we have just got to go out and play,” Clark said.

On Friday, freshman Elena Yankova (pictured) scored five points in the first minute of play and finished with a game-high 20 points. Fellow freshman Bebe Holloway had a dominating game as she finished with 14 points and 17 rebounds, while Gabbie Curtis and Whitney Williams added 12 and 10 points, respectively.

“It was a group effort,” Clark said.

Cowley out-shot Seward County 43.9 percent to 31.3 percent from the floor. Cunningham, who entered the game averaging 21.5 points per game, finished with just 14 points on 6-of-22 shooting. Stephani Rhoten, who scored 13 first half points, finished with 16 points on 5-of-17 shooting.

Cowley dominated the boards as they out-rebounded Seward County 51-34. Along with Holloway’s 17 rebounds, sophomore Lauren Cherry grabbed 12 boards and added a game-high seven assists.

“Both Bebe and Lauren are very good athletes,” Clark said. “I thought they did a really good job.”

The winner of today’s game will advance to the Region VI title game Tuesday at 6 p.m.

Box score:
Cowley (67): Elena Yankova 8-19 2-2 20, Bebe Holloway 6-10 2-4 14, Gabbie Curtis 6-16 0-1 12, Whitney Williams 5-9 0-0 10, Lauren Cherry 3-6 0-0 6, Noelle Jackson 1-5 0-0 3, Courtney Goodrum 0-0 1-2 1, Amy Slane 0-0 0-0 0, JaNeil Robinson 0-0 0-0 0, Alexis Wright 0-1 1-2 1, Neasha Haynes 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-66 6-11 67.

Seward (52): Tegan Cunningham 6-22 0-2 14, Audra Binford 2-10 0-0 5, LaNell Taylor 0-2 0-0 0, Stephani Rhoten 5-17 2-2 16, Jennifer Noel 1-5 0-0 2, Amanda Pierson 2-3 1-2 5, Haley Rogers 4-5 0-0 10, Holly Krause 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 20-64 3-6 52.

Three-pointers: Cowley 3-12 (Yankova 2-5, Jackson 1-2, Wright 0-1, Curtis 0-3, Cherry 0-1), Seward 9-30 (Cunningham 2-8, Binford 1-5, Rogers 2-3, Taylor 0-2, Rhoten 4-12). Rebounds: Cowley 51 (Holloway 17), Seward 34 (Cunningham 9). Assists: Cowley 16 (Cherry 7), Seward 13 (Krause 4). Turnovers: Cowley 19, Seward 17. Total fouls: Cowley 9, Seward 11. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.