February 1, 2010

Tigers beat Neosho, set up showdown with Coffeyville tonight

In a battle for first place in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division, the Cowley College men’s basketball team held Neosho County to 31 percent shooting in a 77-58 win at W.S. Scott Auditorium on Saturday.

“Defense won this game for us,” Cowley head coach Tommy DeSalme said. “This was a good team victory, I was real proud of the guys.”

The victory, which was Cowley’s sixth in a row, keeps the Tigers a half game ahead of Coffeyville in the conference, while Neosho falls a game and a half out of the top spot. Cowley will look to stay in first when they host Coffeyville tonight at 7 p.m.

Cowley is 15-7 overall and 9-1 in the Jayhawk East, while Coffeyville is 14-7 overall and 8-1 in the conference.

On Saturday, Cowley got off to a quick start as they built leads of 15-6 and 24-14 before the Panthers used a 12-0 run, which was capped by a three-pointer by Jahmal Buroughs, to lead 26-24 with 2:45 left in the first half.

However, Lance Russell and Tyrus McGee (pictured) hit three pointers on back-to-back possessions as the Tigers regained the lead and went into the half with a 35-29 advantage.

Leading 40-35 a little over four minutes into the second half, Cowley’s defense would help them start to pull away. The Tigers would hold Neosho County to four points over the next eight minutes as their lead grew to 58-39 following a three-pointer by Canon Fields with eight minutes remaining.

Cowley would out-shoot the Panthers 52 percent to 28 percent in the second half as they went on to the 19-point win.

“When our defense and energy is there we give ourselves a chance to win every night,” DeSalme said.
Freshman point guard Canon Fields made up for an uncharacteristic eight turnovers by finishing with a game-high 23 points. Fields also added six rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Dominick Cornelius added 19 points and seven rebounds as he went 6-of-9 from the floor and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line, while McGee added 13 points and six boards.

Antione Lundy led Neosho with 22 points and 13 rebounds. The Panthers are now 15-6 overall and 7-2 in the Jayhawk East.

Despite the cold weather, the Tigers had another good home crowd as they improved to 9-1 at W.S. Scott Auditorium. DeSalme hopes to have another big crowd tonight as Cowley looks to avenge its only conference loss, suffered Dec. 2 when the Tigers lost 76-59 at Coffeyville.

“This is a great place to play when we get the crowd into it, we will need them again tonight,” DeSalme said.

Box score:
Neosho (58): Justin Fairman 1-5 2-3 4, Kris Wilson 0-2 2-2 2, Anner Arce 1-1 0-0 2, Tyrie Wooten 2-11 6-8 10, Antione Lundy 8-13 5-8 22, Lance Larson 0-1 0-0 0, Jahmal Buroughs 2-8 3-4 8, Antonio Bostic 4-14 2-2 10, Jordan Hickert 0-2 0-0 0, Baba Diallo 0-0 0-0 0, Richard Oppitz 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 18-58 20-27 58.

Cowley (77): Canon Fields 7-15 6-6 23, Caprest Rhone 2-6 3-4 7, Tyrus McGee 6-15 0-0 13, Dominick Cornelius 6-9 5-6 19, Kelton Marshall 2-4 0-0 5, Kalub Long 0-0 0-0 0, Lance Russell 1-1 0-0 3, Julio Rosario 0-2 0-0 0, Joseph Wakefield 1-1 1-1 3, Michael Copeland 2-4 0-2 4, Jordan Lankster 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 27-57 15-19 77.

Three-pointers: Neosho 2-14 (Fairman 0-1, Wooten 0-4, Lundy 1-3, Larson 0-1, Buroughs 3-4, Bostic 0-1, Hickert 0-1), Cowley 8-23 (Fields 3-9, Rhone 0-1, McGee 1-6, Cornelius 2-3 Marshall 1-3, Russell 1-1). Assists: Neosho 8 (Wooten 4), Cowley 21 (Rhone 7). Rebounds: Neosho 29 (Lundy 13), Cowley 32 (Cornelius 7). Turnovers: Neosho 22, Cowley 19. Total fouls: Neosho 19, Cowley 21. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.