March 5, 2010

Lady Tigers rally to beat Garden City 54-46, advance to semifinals

Ending its game against Garden City on a 19-4 run, the Cowley College women's basketball team rallied from a seven-point deficit (42-35) in the final 7:20 to win 54-46 and advance to the semifinals of the Region VI Tournament played at Wichita State University's Charles Koch Arena.

Cowley will play Seward County Sunday at 3 p.m. at Wichita State University's Charles Koch Arena. The Lady Saints are 30-2 after beating Coffeyville 80-69 on Friday.

As for the Lady Tigers' game against Garden City, Cowley found themselves down by as many as 11 points (30-19) early in the second half before making its comeback.

Cowley is now 21-10 on the season. Garden City ends the year with a record of 16-15.

Sophomore Gianna Woods, the team's leading scorer, picked up her second foul less than seven minutes into the contest and had to take a seat on the bench for the remainder of the first half. Woods did not score her first points of the game before hitting a pair of free throws with 10:48 left.

Woods' first basket made the score 35-31 with 8:57 showing on the clock. Woods' two free throws with 5:27 left capped an 8-0 run to put Cowley on top 43-42. Another basket by Woods with three minutes left capped a 12-0 run and put Cowley ahead by five (47-42).

Jasamayne Saunders provided a spark to the team by scoring 12 of her 14 points in  the second half. She scored five straight points to increase Cowley's lead to 52-46 with 48.6 seconds left and Maylisa Johnson provided the final margin by nailing a pair of free throws in the game's final seconds.

Cowley shot only 23 percent (7-of-30) in the game's first 20 minutes of play and did not score its first points of the second half until a basket by Johnson made the score 28-19 with 16:47 remaining.Johnson did her best to keep Cowley close by scoring 10 of the Lady Tigers' first 21 points and shared game-high honors with 14 points. She also added four steals and four assists.

Cowley head coach Todd Clark thought Johnson and Saunders stepped up huge in the win.

"Our energy level picks up with Maylisa on the floor," Clark said. "With Ari (Silva) limping around a bit (due to tendenitus) thank god Jaz (Saunders) came to play. I'm glad we're still alive."

In what has plagued the Tigers for the past month, Cowley went through another long scoreless stretch in which they saw a one-point lead (9-8) turn into a 10-point deficit (19-9). The dry spell lasted nearly nine minutes.
After Cowley answered with an 8-0 run to trail only 19-17 with 3:45 remaining in the first half, the Lady Tigers failed to score a point the rest of the half and went into halftime trailing 24-17.

Cowley was able to make up for its offensive shortcomings by holding Garden City to 35 percent shooting and forcing the Lady Broncbusters into 18 turnovers, while turning the ball over just nine times themselves.

Marisela Rodriguez, the Jayhawk West Freshman of the Year, scored just seven points but did grab 12 rebounds.

Another key to the win was Cowley's ability to get to the free-throw line as they went 15-of-20 from the charity stripe compared to Garden City going just 2-of-10.

Cowley sophomore Kaneesha Lee made only 5-of-16 shots from the floor, but finished with 10 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.

"I thought Kaneesha did a great job and really played tough," Clark said. "Lisa Angell also gave us some huge minutes with Gianna in foul trouble in the first half."

Cowley, the third seed in the tournament, will look to upset the second-seeded Lady Saints on Sunday and advance to Monday night's championship game.

Box Score:
Cowley (54): Ariana Silva 0-6 1-2 1, Kaneesha Lee 5-16 0-0 10, Maylisa Johnson 5-11 4-6 14, Anna Sonka 2-5 0-0 5, Gianna Woods 3-10 4-4 10, Jasamyne Saunders 4-9 6-8 14, Brianna Gonzalez 0-0 0-0 0, Lisa Angell 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 19-59 15-20 54.

Garden City (46): Aubrica Freeman 2-8 0-2 4, Jasmine Troupe 3-7 0-0 6, LeMisia Abbott 4-17 0-0 9, Marisela Rodriguez 3-4 1-4 7, Victoria Naylor 3-9 0-0 7, Deidre Mays 1-3 0-0 2, Aileen Gonzalez 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 21-60 2-10 46.

Three-pointers: Cowley 1-7 (Silva 0-4, Sonka 1-3), G.C. 2-18 (Freeman 0-2, Gonzalez 0-1, Robins 0-2, Abbott 1-9, Naylor 1-4). Rebounds: Cowley 39 (Lee 13), G.C. 46 (Rodriguez 12). Assists: Cowley 10 (Johnson 4), G.C. 12 (Abbott 4). Turnovers: Cowley 9, G.C. 18. Total fouls: Cowley 11, G.C. 17. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.