March 4, 2009

Tiger men avenge earlier defeat, beat Cloud County 77-69

Moving on! Opening the first-round of the Region VI Tournament against seventh-seeded Cloud County Community College, the second-seeded Cowley College men’s basketball team had five players score in double figures in a 77-69 win Tuesday night at W.S. Scott Auditorium.

With the win, Cowley avenges an earlier 74-70 loss to the Thunderbirds, and moves on to play Seward County in the second-round of the Region VI Tournament, which will be played Saturday at Wichita State University’s Koch Arena. Tip off for the game will be 3 p.m. The game between Cowley and Seward will be a rematch of last year’s Region VI championship game.

On Tuesday, Cloud County suffered an unfortunate setback early in the contest as its leading scorer, Jemal Farmer, suffered an ankle injury at the 15:32 mark of the first half. Farmer, who was averaging 17.8 points per game on the season, did not return to the game.

The Thunderbirds’ Chris White-Ready appeared poised to make up for Farmer’s loss as he had eight points in the game’s first 10 minutes of play. However, White-Ready picked up his third foul with 9:42 left in the first half and had to head to the bench for the remainder of the half.

Cowley took advantage of his absence as they went into halftime with a 38-30 lead.

Leading 43-36 early in the second half, Cowley hit Cloud County with a 13-3 run, which saw the Tigers’ lead grow to 56-39 with 12:35 remaining.

On two occasions during the scoring run, Jawanza Poland, who was named the Jayhawk East Freshman of the Year, electrified the crowd. Poland slammed down a perfectly thrown alley-oop by Adonis Gantt and was fouled with 13:59 left to play. Poland hit the free throw to complete the three-point play, giving Cowley a 50-39 lead. Poland would then cap the run with a steal and thunderous dunk that forced Cloud County to call a timeout and send the crowd into an uproar.

The Tigers would continue to hold a double digit lead and led 69-54 after a basket by Lance Russell with 4:44 left to play. However, the Thunderbirds would not go away easily. Cloud County chipped away at the Tigers’ lead, and drew within 73-67 on a three-pointer by Adrian Herrera with 36.8 seconds left.

Cowley was able to hang on for the win by making shots at the free-throw line. The Tigers finished the game 21-of-26 from the foul line, while Cloud County was just 5-of-11 from the line.

“The key was getting the ball to the basket and getting to the (free-throw) line,” Cowley head coach Steve Eck said.

Sophomore Jack Crowder led Cowley with 14 points and seven rebounds, while Poland and Dominique Lane added 13 points apiece. Russell had a nice game off the bench for the Tigers as he made all four of his shot attempts, which included three treys as he finished with 11 points. Freshman post player Robert Goff chipped in with 10 points, five rebounds and three blocked shots.

Eric Marshall led Cloud County with 15 points and six rebounds. White-Ready finished the game with 12 points. The Thunderbirds end the season with a record of 18-13.

Cowley, which improved to 27-4 on the season, will now set its sights on Seward County (23-8). The Saints finished third in the Jayhawk West with a conference mark of 9-7.

Seward County, like the Tigers, is one of the better defensive teams in the Jayhawk Conference, as they are holding opponents to an average of 66.3 points per game.

“They run a lot of traps and presses,” Eck said. “We have got to take care of the basketball and be able to attack their defense.”

The winner of Saturday’s game will advance to play Sunday at 7 p.m.
Saturday’s game can be heard on KSOK 95.9 FM.

Box score:
Cloud County (69): Adrian Herrera 5-8 0-0 14, Jemal Farmer 0-1 0-0 0, Andrew Taylor 3-4 0-0 6, Eric Marshall 5-9 5-8 15, Chris White-Ready 6-10 0-1 12, Oleg Kovalov 1-3 0-0 2, Chris Tate 1-1 0-0 2, Eric Ray 1-3 0-0 2, Patrick Schulte 2-5 0-0 5, Jermey McCray 5-9 0-2 10. Totals: 29-53 5-11 69.

Cowley (77): Caprest Rhone 1-3 7-8 9, Jawanza Poland 5-12 3-3 13, Jack Crowder 6-13 1-2 14, Robert Goff 4-5 2-2 10, Dominique Lane 6-9 1-3 13, Mike Atwater 0-0 2-2 2, Adonis Gantt 0-0 5-6 5, Lance Russell 4-4 0-0 11, Elijah Jones 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 26-46 21-26 77.

Three-pointers: Cloud 6-15 (Herrera 4-6, Farmer 0-1, Marshall 0-1, Kovalov 1-3, Ray 0-1, Schulte 1-3), Cowley 4-10 (Rhone 0-1, Poland 0-3, Crowder 1-3, Russell 3-3). Rebounds: Cloud 16 (Marshall 6), Cowley 26 (Crowder 7). Assists: Cloud 19 (Taylor 7), Cowley 16 (Poland 4, Lane 4, Gantt 4). Turnovers: Cloud 17, Cowley 19. Total fouls: Cloud 23, Cowley 11. Fouled out: White-Ready. Technicals: none.