January 8, 2010

Tigers fall to high octane Saints 83-67

Showing why they were picked to win the Jayhawk West, Seward County defeated the Cowley College men’s basketball team 83-67 Friday afternoon at the Jayhawk Shootout played in Coffeyville.

Seward, which entered the game averaging a conference best 91 points per game, turned a 15-point first half deficit into a 16-point win.

The game started well for the Tigers as Cowley hit five three-pointers and led 19-4  less than five minutes into the contest. The Saints did not panic after falling behind by 15 points as they scored nine straight points to cut Cowley’s lead to six (19-13) and came back to grab its first lead at 33-31 on a basket by Marky Nolen with 5:31 left in the first half.

Seward would outscore Cowley 42-15 after the Tigers opening blitz as the Saints led 46-34 at halftime.
Cowley opened the second half with a 10-2 run to cut Seward’s lead to 48-44 with 17:23 remaining, but that would be as close as the Tigers would get as the Saints answered each time Cowley tried to make a run.

Tyrus McGee scored 15 of his team-high 21 points in the first 10 minutes of the second half as Cowley trailed only 61-56 with 9:45 left to play. However, McGee did not score after that and the Saints led by double digits over the final 8:30 of play.

Seward’s Tony Smith led all scorers with 25 points, while Marcus James added 20 points as the Saints improved to 11-3 on the season. Seward, which out-rebounds its opponents by nearly eight boards a game, out-rebounded Cowley 46-23.

“Our guys have got to learn how hard they have to play if they are undersized,” Cowley head coach Tommy DeSalme said. “We could not find a way to score inside.”

The Tigers made a season-high 12 three-pointers, but did little damage in the paint. Lance Russell joined McGee in double figures with 11 points, while Kelton Marshall added seven.

Cowley, which is now 9-6 on the season, will face another stiff challenge on Sunday when they play Dodge City at 3 p.m. in the Jayhawk Shootout. The Conquistadors are 11-3 on the season, with all three losses coming by five points or fewer.

“We have got to find a way to get better in practice at the things we need to work on,” DeSalme said. “We have a big game on Sunday against Dodge City and we would like to pick up our 10th win.”