January 28, 2010

Outside shooting leads Tigers to fifth straight win

Feeding off the energy from a boisterous home crowd, the Cowley College men’s basketball team hit 10-of-17 three-point attempts en route to a 81-71 win over Kansas City Wednesday night at W.S. Scott Auditorium.

“I thought we had great energy and a great crowd,” Cowley head coach Tommy DeSalme said. “We had a great student section and we need that.”

The victory, Cowley’s fifth in a row, keeps the conference leading Tigers one half game ahead of both Neosho County and Coffeyville, which are 7-1 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. Cowley is now 14-7 overall and 8-1 in the conference. The Tigers will host Neosho County on Saturday prior to having Coffeyville come to Arkansas City on Monday.

Cowley freshman Tyrus McGee opened the game with a three-pointer and the Tigers would go 6-of-10 from three-point range in the first in building a 42-31 halftime lead.

Cowley also got a lift from its bench as Jordan Lankster and Julio Rosario came off the bench to combine for 14 first half points.

The Tigers’ lead would grow to as many as 19 points (65-46) following a pair of free throws by Caprest Rhone, however, the three-point shooting of Kansas City’s Derrick Denny brought the Blue Devils back.
Denny, who leads the team in scoring (17.6 points) and is shooting an astounding 48 percent from three-point range, made 7-of-11 three-point attempts, his final three pointer cut Cowley’s lead to 77-71 with 2:20 remaining.

The turning point in the game came two possessions later as Kansas City had a chance to cut Cowley’s lead to four. The Blue Devils’ Andre Metoyer missed a dunk and Denny fouled Rhone while going after the rebound. The foul with 1:31 left, was Denny’s fifth. Not only did Denny foul out, Rhone hit both free throws to push Cowley’s lead to eight (79-71) and the Tigers held on for the win.

 Kansas City out-shot Cowley 52 percent to 49 percent but turned the ball over 10 more times (22-12) than the Tigers.

McGee led Cowley with 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting, while Dominick Cornelius added 11 points. Lankster added 10 points off the bench for the second straight game, and Kelton Marshall finished with seven points and a team-high seven rebounds.

Denny led Kansas City with 24 points.

“He can shoot the heck out of it, I like watching him play,” DeSalme said.

Cowley will now turn its focus to Saturday’s home game against Neosho County. The Panthers are 15-5 on the season and have five players averaging double figures in scoring.

“This is one big one down, now we have to get ready for Neosho, who is extremely talented,” DeSalme said. “Our crowd brought us a lot of energy tonight, we will need the same thing on Saturday.

Box score:
Kansas City (71): Dennis Tinnon 5-8 2-5 12, Melvin Gatson 0-1 0-0 0, Andre Metoyer 2-8 2-3 6, Scott Freuhling 6-9 0-0 14, Derrick Denny 8-12 1-1 24, Chris McDonald 1-2 1-3 3, Monty Taylor 3-7 0-0 7, Jonathan Wright 2-5 1-2 5, Hal Payne 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 27-52 7-14 71.

Cowley (81): Caprest Rhone 2-6 5-6 9, Lance Russell 3-8 1-2 9, Tyrus McGee 7-12 0-0 17, Dominick Cornelius 5-9 0-0 11, Kelton Marshall 3-8 0-0 7, Canon Fields 2-7 0-0 6, AJ Barber 0-0 0-0 0, Julio Rosario 2-3 1-2 6, Joseph Wakefield 1-1 0-0 2, Michael Copeland 2-3 0-0 4, Jordan Lankster 4-6 2-3 10. Totals: 31-63 9-13 81.

Three-pointers: Kansas City 10-19 (Fruehling 2-5, Denny 7-11, Taylor 1-2, Wright 0-1), Cowley 10-17 (Rhone 0-2, Russell 2-2, McGee 3-5, Cornelius 1-1, Marshall 1-2, Fields 2-4, Rosario 1-1). Rebounds: Kansas City 32 (Tinnon 10), Cowley 27 (Marshall 7). Assists: Kansas City 20 (Gatson 10), Cowley 22 (Fields 8). Turnovers: Kansas City 22, Cowley 12. Total fouls: Kansas City 18, Cowley 14. Fouled out: Denny. Technicals: none.