March 11, 2008

Lady Tigers have season come to a heartbreaking end

Battling back from an 11-point second half deficit, the Cowley College women’s basketball team rallied to take the lead over Cloud County in the final minutes of its Region VI semifinal game Monday in Wichita. However, the Lady Thunderbirds got a basket by Jermaine Kermis with 11.7 seconds left and Elena Yankova’s jumper in the closing seconds was off the mark as Cloud County escaped with the 56-55 win.

Kermis appeared to travel on the game-winning shot, but the no call allowed her to sail in for the lay up. Prior to Kermis’ shot, Whitney Williams (pictured) had put Cowley ahead with a jumper from the free-throw line.

The loss ends a valiant season for the Lady Tigers as they regrouped after starting the season 5-7, to finish with a record of 21-12.

“I’m obviously disappointed, but I’m really proud of my kids, I thought they played hard,” Cowley head coach Todd Clark said.

With three starters saddled with two fouls a piece, Cowley trailed 22-11 with 6:26 remaining in the first half. Noelle Jackson came off the Lady Tiger bench to ignite the rally. Jackson followed a basket by fellow reserve Courtney Goodrum by scoring five straight points. Gabbie Curtis’ three-pointer tied the game at 25-25 before Cloud’s Kenya Howard scored to put the Lady Thunderbirds up 27-25 at the end of the first half.

“We got pushed around early and we did not handle it very well, we did finally adjust to it and did better in the second half,” Clark said.

Cloud County’s Katie O’Neill hit three three-pointers in the first three minutes of the second half as the Lady Thunderbirds regained an 11-point lead (38-27). Cowley still trailed by nine points (51-42) with seven minutes remaining.

Once again, Jackson led the Lady Tigers’ comeback as her three-pointer started an 11-1 run, which saw Cowley take the lead at 53-52 on a free-throw by Curtis with 1:46 left to play.

“Noelle and Courtney have been doing a really good job in practice so it was good to reward them a little bit by having them get out there and play,” Clark said.

Howard’s two free throws with 1:05 remaining put Cloud back on top 54-53. Cowley then got the ball to Williams, who drilled a jumper from the free-throw line to put the Lady Tigers back on top 55-54 with 42.1 seconds left.

O’Neill then missed a jumper for Cloud and Curtis rebounded the missed shot. While trying to dribble out of trouble, Curtis lost the ball out of bounds with 20.4 seconds showing on the clock.

Thus setting the stage for Kermis’ lay up and Yankova’s missed shot in the closing seconds.

Howard led Cloud County with 19 points and 12 rebounds. The Lady Thunderbirds will play Barton County in tonight’s Region VI title game at 6 p.m.

Curtis led Cowley with 15 points and nine rebounds, while Williams and Jackson each chipped in with 12 points apiece. Cowley will say goodbye to sophomores Lauren Cherry, Alexis Wright, Natasa Draganic and Caitlin Spencer. Of the four, only Cherry and Wright saw significant playing time.

“We’ve got a good group coming back,” Clark said.

Box score:
Cowley (55): Elena Yankova 3-15 0-0 6, Bebe Holloway 1-2 3-6 6, Gabbie Curtis 6-15 2-4 15, Whitney Williams 6-12 0-2 12, Lauren Cherry 1-4 0-0 2, Courtney Goodrum 1-1 0-0 2, Noelle Jackson 4-7 2-2 12, Alexis Wright 0-2 0-0 0, JaNeil Robinson 0-0 0-0 0, Neasha Haynes 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 22-58 7-14 55.

Cloud (56): Deandra Schirmer 3-7 4-4 10, Kenya Howard 7-18 5-8 19, Monique Pitts 0-2 0-0 0, Katie O’Neill 5-14 0-1 13, Stephanie Bryant 1-4 0-0 2, Jermaine Kermis 3-8 1-1 7, Amy Chapman 0-0 0-0 0, Kara Champlin 1-3 0-0 2, Shannon White 0-0 3-4 3. Totals: 20-56 13-18 56.

Three-pointers: Cowley 4-8 (Jackson 2-4, Yankova 0-1, Holloway 1-1, Curtis 1-2), Cloud 3-7 (O’Neill 3-6, Bryant 0-1). Rebounds: Cowley 34 (Curtis 9), Cloud 46 (Howard 12). Assists: Cowley 15 (Yankova 5), Cloud 12 (Kermis, Howard 3). Turnovers: Cowley 16, Cloud 20. Total fouls: Cowley 19, Cloud 13. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.