From RAMA PEROO/Cowley College
The No. 12-ranked Cowley College men’s basketball team shot 50 percent and never trailed in a 79-55 win at Pratt on Saturday.
The victory, Cowley’s third in a row, improves the Tigers’ record to 24-4 overall and 19-3 in the Jayhawk Conference. Pratt falls to 8-19 overall and 5-16 in the conference.
On Saturday, Cowley raced out to an 11-2 lead and held Pratt to 1-of-19 shooting from three-point range while building a 41-24 halftime lead.
The Tigers shot 60 percent in the second half and had its lead grow to as many as 27 points in the 24-point road win.
Cowley sophomore Jeff Nwankwo led all players with 21 points and 12 rebounds on 8-of-15 shooting from the floor. Fellow sophomore post-player Corey Thomas added 18 points and 13 rebounds.
“We were able to establish getting the ball inside, and I felt like that caused them some problems,” Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson said. “For the most part, I felt like we kept being aggressive and didn’t settle in the second half.”
Zion Cruz led Pratt with 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting.
Cowley remains in second place in the conference, one and a half games behind Barton (20-1) with two games remaining. The Tigers will host Cloud County on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the team’s final regular season home game. The T-Birds are 19-8 overall and 14-7 in the Jayhawk Conference. Cloud handed Cowley a 78-62 defeat on January 13 in Concordia, KS.
“Cloud really whooped up on us up in Concordia, so we will need to have two great days of practice to have any opportunity to beat them,” Jackson said. “They are playing at a really high level.”
Mbengue goes off in Tigers’ 90-87 road win at Pratt
Three days after being named Homecoming Queen at Cowley College, sophomore Ndack Mbengue had another day to remember as she went off for a career-high 37 points to go along with 24 rebounds in the Lady Tigers third straight win, a 90-87 victory at Pratt on Saturday.
Saturday’s game marked the sixth time in the past seven contests that Mbengue has notched a double-double. During this stretch, she is averaging 18.7 points and 17.3 rebounds. She has twice recorded 24 rebounds, just one shy of the school record set by Dru Wise on January 29. 1979.
“Ndack played extremely well,” Cowley head coach Todd Clark said. “Credit to the team for getting her lots of touches in the win over Pratt. We have done a better job of looking for her during this hot stretch she is on.”
Cowley is now 15-13 overall and 9-13 in the Jayhawk Conference. The Lady Tigers moved within one-half game of eighth place in the conference and will host Cloud County (13-13 overall, 9-12 Jayhawk Conference) on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Cloud is tied with Independence for eighth place in the conference.
On Saturday, Cowley stormed out to a 27-9 after one quarter of play and led 43-29 at the end of the first half.
Pratt would continue to chip away at the deficit and pulled within 64-58 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Beavers used a furious rally down the stretch but could not get over the hump as Cowley held on for the 90-87 win.
Lady Tiger freshman Hattie Pyle had one of her better games of the season, finishing with 20 points, five rebounds and three assists on 7-of-10 shooting.
“Hattie did a good job of distributing the ball and putting us in the right spot to be successful,” Clark said.
Sophomore Anna Przyszlak made just 4-of-16 shots from the floor, but went 8-of-12 from the foul line to finish with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
Pratt’s Princess Anderson, who leads the NJCAA Division I in scoring, finished with 29 points but made only 9-of-29 shot attempts from the floor.
With Mbengue and Przyszlak helping Cowley to a plus-19 rebounding advantage (54-35), Pratt did not have much luck scoring inside. Thus, the Beavers attempted 50 three-pointers, making 17 of them.
Whereas Cowley made only three shots from beyond the arc, but shot nearly 58 percent from two-point range.
Pratt falls to 13-14 overall and 7-14 in the Jayhawk Conference.
Wednesday’s game vs. Cloud will be the final regular season home game for the Lady Tiger sophomores. Cowley will face a Cloud County team that has dropped two games in a row but defeated the Lady Tigers 71-68 on January 13 in Concordia, KS.
“Cloud is a tough matchup for us, so we will need to play well,” Clark said.
