March 9, 2009

Tigers beat Barton County 97-89, advance to Region VI title game

Hitting a season-high 12 three-pointers, the Cowley College men’s basketball team knocked off Jayhawk West top-seed, Barton County, 97-89 in the semifinals of the RegionVI Tournament played Sunday night at Wichita State University’s Charles Koch Arena.

With the victory, the Tigers advance to tonight’s championship game versus Garden City at 8 p.m. Cowley, which is now 29-4 on the season, has advanced to the championship game of the Region VI Tournament each of the past two seasons.

The Tigers have not qualified for the national tournament in Hutchinson since the 1956-57 season.
On Sunday, Cowley came out on fire as they hit six three pointers in the first six minutes of the game and led 27-9 after a basket by Jack Crowder with 13:00 left before halftime.

However, Barton County slowly started chipping away at the Tigers’ lead, and cut Cowley’s advantage to single digits (38-30) on a lay-up by Corey Bingham with 3:59 left in the first half.

Cowley would head into the halftime intermission clinging to a three-point lead at 44-41.

Bingham would give Barton County its first lead of the game as his three-pointer with 13:45 remaining put the Cougars ahead 58-55.

Just 11 seconds later, Tiger point guard Adonis Gantt, who finished with 13 points and four assists off the bench, would answer Bingham’s three with a three-point play to tie the game at 58-58.

Cowley would regain the lead at 62-61 on another basket by Gantt with 12:26 left to play. Leading 73-71 with 7:35 remaining, the Tigers hit Barton County with a 12-2 run over the next four minutes to lead 85-73.

The Cougars fought back to within five points of the lead as Chip Steven’s three-pointer with 34.4 seconds left cut the Tigers’ lead to 92-87. However, Cowley made 5-of-6 free-throws down the stretch and held on for the 97-89 win.

Freshman Jawanza Poland hit three treys in the final 10 minutes of Sunday’s game and finished with 20 points and five rebounds. While, Crowder, who had 27 points and 14 rebounds in the win over Seward County on Saturday, finished with 26 points and 13 rebounds in the win over Barton County.

Freshman Caprest Rhone hit four three pointers and finished with 14 points. As a team, the Tigers shot a blistering 54.5 percent from beyond the arc as they made 12-of-22 three-point attempts.

Bingham hit 9-of-13 shots from the floor and led Barton County with 27 points. Former Tiger, Marcus Butler, added 22 points and five rebounds for the Cougars, which finish the season with a record of 28-5.
Cowley will now turn its attention to Garden City, the fourth seed out of the Jayhawk West. The Broncbusters (22-11) defeated Butler Community College 59-54 to advance to the title game.

Garden City is led by Thomas Manzano (15 points per game) and Richard Thomas (13.7 points per game). Manzano, a 6-foot-4 freshman guard from Brooklyn, New York, scored 25 points in the Broncbusters win over Allen County on Saturday. Thomas led Garden City with 20 points in the win over Butler on Sunday.

Tonight’s game can be heard on KSOK 95.9 FM.

Box score:
Cowley (97): Caprest Rhone 4-6 2-2 14, Jawanza Poland 6-16 5-6 20, Jack Crowder 10-24 3-4 26, Robert Goff 2-5 2-6 6, Dominique Lane 3-6 1-3 8, Mike Atwater 0-0 0-0 0, Adonis Gantt 5-11 3-4 13, Lance Russell 1-2 3-4 6, Elijah Jones 0-1 0-0 0, Ray Chambers 1-2 2-2 4, Bernard Kamwa 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 32-73 21-31 97.

Barton County (89): Josh Martin 3-10 0-0 7, Chip Steven 4-10 2-2 13, Marcus Butler 7-14 8-9 22, Nyika Williams 2-3 2-4 6, Matt Simmons 2-3 0-0 4, Corey Bingham 9-13 6-12 27, Taaj Ridley 1-6 0-0 2, John Schneider 1-1 0-0 2.

Three pointers: Cowley 12-22 (Rhone 4-6, Poland 3-7, Gantt 0-1, Russell 1-2, Crowder 3-5, Lane 1-1), Barton 7-23 (Ridley 0-2, Martin 1-3, Bingham 3-6, Steven 3-9, Butler 0-2). Rebounds: Cowley 49 (Crowder 13), Barton 36 (Williams 7). Assists: Cowley 21 (Rhone, Gantt 4), Barton 15 (Bingham 5). Turnovers: Cowley 15, Barton 12. Fouls: Cowley 24, Barton 25. Fouled out: Ridley, Butler, Poland. Technicals: Barton bench.