January 8, 2009

Yankova’s 38 points lead Lady Tigers to 72-45 win

Scoring a career-high 38 points, sophomore forward Elena Yankova helped lead the Cowley College women’s basketball team to a 72-45 win over Fort Scott Wednesday at W.S. Scott Auditorium.

After falling behind 9-3 to open the game, the Lady Tigers went on a 19-2 run to lead 22-11 with 7:13 left in the first half. The Lady Tigers would take a 36-23 lead into the halftime intermission.

Fort Scott scored the first four points of the second half to cut Cowley’s lead to nine (36-27), but the Lady Tigers would answer with a 14 point run that was capped by a reverse lay-up by Yankova.

With 5:25 left to play in the game, Yankova had outscored the entire Fort Scott team 36-34 as the Lady Tigers cruised to the 27-point win. Yankova finished 14-of-21 from the floor and 8-of9 from the free-throw line.

“When Elena’s going I am not sure who can guard her,” Cowley head coach Todd Clark said. “Her teammates set great screens for her and put her in position to be successful.”

Sophomore JaNeil Robinson, who came in averaging 1.8 points and 2.8 rebounds, had her best game of the season as she finished with seven points and 10 rebounds. Whitney Williams also was solid as she finished with seven points and a game-high 14 rebounds for the Lady Tigers as they improved to 11-3 overall and 2-0 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. Fort Scott drops to 7-7 overall and 0-2 in the Jayhawk East.

“JaNeil and Whitney were both huge on the boards for us,” Clark said.

The Lady Greyhounds’ Leondra Doomes-Stephens, who is leading the conference in scoring with an average of 22 points per game, was held to 17 points on 7-of-22 shooting.

The Lady Tigers will be back in action Saturday when they host Independence at 5:30 p.m. The Lady Pirates have the same record as Cowley as they are 11-3 overall and 2-0 in the conference. Rhea Codio and Kiara Marshall are each averaging 16.2 points per game.

“We have got to guard them because they are the key for their team,” Clark said.