March 2, 2009

Tigers grab share of second straight conference title

Pulling out another close win, the No. 17-ranked Cowley College men’s basketball team gained a share of its second consecutive Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division title with a 72-67 victory at Allen County on Saturday.

The win was Cowley’s sixth in a row as they came back from a two-game deficit in the conference to tie Coffeyville for first place with a conference mark of 15-3. With only two returning players from last year’s squad, Cowley head coach Steve Eck and his assistant coaches, Lance Madison and Kenneth Turner, have done a terrific job with this young Tiger team.

“We dug a hole for ourselves early, but we got some help from Highland and were able to beat Coffeyville at their place,” Eck said. “It wasn’t easy having only two sophomores.”

The Tigers will be the Jayhawk East’s second seed at the Region VI Tournament, while Coffeyville (East) and Barton County (West) earned the top seeds in the tourney.

After beating Allen County 85-59 Jan. 28 in Arkansas City, the Tigers had a much tougher time against the Red Devils Saturday in Iola. The game was close throughout as the teams traded baskets before Cowley went into the half with a 37-36 lead.

The game would remain close over the final 20 minutes of play. However, Tiger freshman Robert Goff gave Cowley the lead for good (56-54) on his dunk with 7:45 left to play.

Goff’s dunk started a 6-0 run by the Tigers that broke a 54-54 tie. Leading by only four points (64-60) with less than two minutes remaining, Cowley got a huge three-pointer by freshman Lance Russell to put the Tigers up seven (67-60) with 1:38 left.

Cowley would go 3-of-4 from the free-throw line and get a basket by sophomore Jack Crowder over the game’s final minute of play as they held on for the win.

Crowder finished with 16 points and ended the regular season as the Jayhawk East’s leading scorer with an average of 20.4 points per game. This coming after he averaged 10.7 points as a freshman.

“I knew Jack could score, he really worked on his outside shot over the summer,” Eck said.

After attempting only six three-pointers as a freshman, Crowder has made 24 three pointers this season.
Jawanza Poland led Cowley with 17 points, while Dominique Lane and Robert Goff chipped in 15 and 10 points, respectively.

Allen County drops to 13-17 overall and finishes tied for fifth in the conference with Neosho County with a record of 8-10. The Red Devils needed a victory over the Tigers in order to host a first-round region tournament game.

“We are talking about a pretty good Allen County team, one that lost by one point at Coffeyville on a missed free-throw at the end,” Eck said. “They made some mistakes at the end and we were able to capitalize on them.”

Cowley is now 26-4 on the season. The Tigers will have a chance to avenge one of its four losses when they play host to Cloud County Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the first-round of the Region VI Tournament.

The Thunderbirds defeated Cowley by a score of 74-70 Dec. 5 at the Jayhawk Shootout played in Coffeyville. At the time, Cloud County was 10-1 on the season. The Thunderbirds (18-12 overall) went on to finish seventh in the Jayhawk West with a conference mark of 7-9.

Cloud County, which was picked to finish second in the Jayhawk West, lost two one-point games and had six losses by 10 points or less.

“This definitely won’t be the typical first-round game,” Eck said. ‘They are a very physical team that is well coached.”

The Thunderbirds’ Jemal Farmer, who leads the team with an average of 17.8 points per game, will return after sitting out the team’s 77-69 loss at Hutchinson on Saturday.