February 18, 2010

Tigers beat Fort Scott, improve to 13-3 in Jayhawk East

Continuing its late season surge, the Cowley College men’s basketball team picked up its fourth straight win with a 74-58 victory over Fort Scott Wednesday at W.S. Scott Auditorium.

After a slow start saw the Tigers’ trailing 15-9 seven minutes into the game, Cowley out-scored the Greyhounds 28-4 to close the half with a 37-19 lead. Cowley would lead by as many as 32 points (61-29) in the second half before pulling the majority of its starters midway through the second half.

Cowley head coach Tommy DeSalme was pleased with his team’s performance.

“I though our defensive energy was real good in the first half,” DeSalme said. “This was a good team victory for us.”

The win was Cowley’s 10th in its past 12 games and improves the Tigers’ record to 19-9 overall and 13-3 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. Cowley remains a half game behind Coffeyville (12-3) for first place in the conference. Fort Scott’s losing streak now stands at 21 games as they fall to 3-25 overall and 0-16 in the Jayhawk East.

Cowley freshmen Tyrus McGee and Canon Fields combined to go 8-of-12 from three-point range and shared game-high honors with 17 points. Sophomore Lance Russell, who along with Caprest Rhone, was playing his final regular season home game, added 11 points, while Jordan Lankster finished with 10 points.

After averaging 3.3 points in limited playing time through the Tigers’ first 24 games, Lankster has scored in double figures in each of the last four games and is averaging 12.8 points over that span.
“Jordan just continues to get better,” DeSalme said.

Fort Scott’s Ramell Taylor made 7-of-8 shots from the floor and finished with his season average of 17 points in the defeat.

Cowley will have a week off before playing its final two conference games on the road. The Tigers will play at Kansas City next Wednesday at 8 p.m., and then travel to Chanute to take on Neosho County at 2 p.m.

“Our focus now has to be completely on next week,” DeSalme said. “We are going to two places that are tough to win at. They will be big games for each team which makes them fun basketball games to play in.”

Box score:
Fort Scott (58): Robert Mason 0-2 0-0 0, Robert Hatcher 2-8 1-3 5, Ramell Taylor 7-8 2-2 17, Alex Barner 6-11 0-0 16, Jamaal McCoy 2-3 0-0 4, Bryce Kemp 1-3 3-5 5, Caleb Brown 1-2 0-0 3, Jacob Gougler 2-5 2-2 8. Totals: 21-42 8-12 58.

Cowley (74): Canon Fields 7-9 0-0 17, Tyrus McGee 5-11 2-2 17, Dominick Cornelius 4-10 0-0 9, Michael Copeland 1-2 0-0 2, Jordan Lankster 5-7 0-0 10, Caprest Rhone 0-1 0-0 0, Kalub Long 0-0 0-0 0, AJ Barber 1-1 2-2 4, Brent Schuck 0-3 0-0 0, Lance Russell 4-9 0-0 11, Julio Rosario 1-2 0-0 2, Joseph Wakefield 1-1 0-0 2, Kelton Marshall 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 29-58 4-4 74.

Three-pointers: Fort Scott 8-15 (Mason 0-1, Hatcher 0-2, Taylor 1-1, Barner 4-7, Brown 1-2, Gougler 2-2), Cowley 12-26 (Fields 3-4, McGee 5-8, Cornelius 1-5, Rhone 0-1, Schuck 0-2, Russell 3-6). Rebounds: Fort Scott 21 (Hatcher, Taylor, Barner 4), Cowley 27 (McGee 6). Assists: Fort Scott 18 (Hatcher, Kemp 4), Cowley 19 (Fields 5). Turnovers: Fort Scott 19, Cowley 11. Total fouls: Fort Scott 9, Cowley 14. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.