December 14, 2009

Lady Tigers take five game win streak into break

Playing its final game of the first semester, the Cowley College women’s basketball team got 20 points and 11 rebounds from Gianna Woods in a 55-45 win over the Southwestern College JV Saturday in Winfield.

Having already beaten the Southwestern JV 73-42 in its season opening game, and with Christmas break looming, the Lady Tigers were not real sharp on Saturday. However, Cowley did enough things right to run its winning streak to five games and improve to 8-4 on the season.

Cowley head coach Todd Clark knew it would be a challenge to have his team focused on the Lady Builders.

“We didn’t show up to play and we warned them all week,” Clark said. “I guess we will roll out of town happy to win.”

Cowley held a 25-18 halftime lead before Southwestern rallied to tie the game at 29-29 just three minutes into the second half. There would be two more ties in the game at 39-39 and 41-41. The Lady Tigers would put the clamps on defensively down the stretch as they out-scored the Lady Builders 14-4 over the game’s final seven minutes of play.

For the game, Cowley held the Southwestern JV to only 29 percent shooting. During its win streak, Cowley is outscoring its opponents by an average margin of 60-50.

Woods, who went 7-of-10 from the floor and 6-of-6 from the free-throw line, helped Cowley overcome a poor shooting night in which they shot only 34 percent from the floor. Woods’ heads into the break leading the team in scoring (13.7 points) and rebounding (8.8 rebounds).

Kaneesha Lee, who scored a career-high 26 points in Cowley’s win over Seminole State on Tuesday, made just 1-of-11 shots from the floor and finished with only three points and four rebounds on Saturday. Freshman Maylisa Johnson helped pick up the slack by finishing with six points, 10 rebounds, and four steals.

“Maylisa did a really good job,” Clark said.

Freshman Ariana Silva added 10 points and three assists, while Anna Sonka chipped in with nine points.
Gretchen Blattner’s 14 points led the Southwestern JV. Blattner made 4-of-11 three-point attempts, while the rest of the team went just 1-of-10 from three-point range. Raven Carr also finished in double figures for the Lady Builders as she scored 10 points.

Cowley will not return to the court until Monday, Jan. 4 when they host Carl Albert at 5 p.m. Carl Albert was the last team to beat the Lady Tigers as the Lady Vikings won 73-47 on Nov. 21.

“We hope to get refreshed and get better over the holidays,” Clark said.