November 18, 2009

Tigers beat NOC 73-61, improve to 5-0

Getting scoring from 11 different players, the Cowley College men’s basketball team used a team effort to defeat Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa 73-61 Tuesday night at W.S. Scott Auditorium.

With Tiger head coach Tommy DeSalme playing all 14 players on his roster, Cowley built a nine-point halftime lead (44-35) and led by as many as 20 points (70-50) in the second half as they improved to 5-0 on the season.

DeSalme was pleased with the effort he received from each member of the team.

“That’s the best team victory we have had so far,” DeSalme said. ‘Our bench stepped up for us and played really well.”

With Cowley leading 51-43 with less than nine minutes remaining, the Tigers began an 8-0 run to push its lead to 16 points (59-43) with seven minutes remaining, and never looked back in beating the Mavericks for the second time in the past eight days.

Cowley out-shot NOC 48 percent to 38 percent from the floor, while also out-rebounding the Mavericks 39-29. Freshman Tyrus McGee led Cowley with 14 points and seven rebounds. McGee has scored in double figures in all five of the Tigers’ games and is leading the team in points (14.6) and rebounds (4.6) per game.

Freshman point guard Canon Fields scored all 10 of his points in the first half. Fields’ three-pointer with 7:51 remaining in the first half gave Cowley the lead (20-18) for good.

Sophomore guard Caprest Rhone came off the bench to score 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the floor. Julio Rosario added eight points, while Marcus Damas chipped in with six points and seven rebounds.

Reid Whitley led the Mavericks with 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting.

Cowley will continue its challenging early season schedule by hosting Jayhawk West foe, Pratt Community College, Thursday at 7 p.m. Pratt is 4-2 on the season.

“We have got to get ready for Pratt because Pratt will give us other issues (we have not seen),” DeSalme said.

Box score:
NOC (61): Kearston Marion 2-8 0-1 6, Jeremy Lampkin 2-9 1-2 5, Reid Whitley 7-10 5-8 19, Thomas Razor 5-11 2-2 14, Ross Morrisett 1-5 0-0 3, Darrell Traylor 1-3 0-1 3, Geoff McIntosh 0-4 0-0 0, Connor Walker 0-0 0-0 0, Marin Backo 1-5 0-1 3, Egor Shakmetov 4-5 0-2 8. Totals: 23-60 8-17 61.

Cowley (73): Canon Fields 3-4 2-2 10, Marcus Damas 3-5 0-1 6, Lance Russell 1-3 2-2 5, Tyrus McGee 3-8 7-8 14, Dominick Cornelius 2-8 0-0 4, Caprest Rhone 5-6 0-0 10, Kalub Long 1-2 2-4 4, AJ Barber 0-2 0-0 0, Brent Schuck 0-1 0-1 0, Julio Rosario 2-4 4-8 8, Joseph Wakefield 0-0 0-0 0, Kelton Marshall 3-6 0-0 6, Michael Copeland 2-2 0-1 4, Jordan Lankster 0-1 2-2 2. Totals: 25-52 19-29 73.

Three-pointers: NOC 7-26 (Marion 2-6, Lampkin 0-1, Razor 2-4, Morrisett 1-5, Traylor 1-1, McIntosh 0-4, Backo 1-5), Cowley 4-12 (Fields 2-2, Damas 0-1, Russell 1-2, McGee 1-3, Cornelius 0-1, Rhone 0-1, Barber 0-1, Marshall 0-1). Rebounds: NOC 29 (Razor 6), Cowley 39 (Damas, McGee 7). Assists: NOC 17 (Razor 4), Cowley 15 (Fields 4). Turnovers: NOC 16, Cowley 19. Total fouls: NOC 25, Cowley 18. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.