From RAMA PEROO/Cowley College
Finishing the regular season by playing at Butler Community College on Wednesday, the Cowley College women’s basketball team fell behind early and was never a threat in the 62-50 road defeat.
After defeating Butler 71-69 on January 21 in Arkansas City, Cowley never led in Wednesday’s contest as they had its four-game winning streak come to an end. The Lady Tigers (16-14) finished in a three-way tie for eighth place in the conference with a record of 10-14 and earned the eighth seed and a home game to open the region playoffs.
The Tigers will host No. 9-seed Cloud County (14-15) Saturday at 1 p.m. in the first round of the Region VI Tournament. The T-Birds split the season series against Cowley and are coming off a 117-72 win at Northwest Kansas Tech in their regular season finale.
“We are excited to have a home playoff game and hope to play well on Saturday,” Clark said.
The winner of Saturday’s game will advance to play at top-seeded Hutchinson on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
On Wednesday, Butler was led by sophomore post-player Freddie Wallace, who scored 18 points and became the school’s all-time scoring leader with 1,095 career points. The Grizzlies (23-7) earned the third seed in the region tournament by finishing with a conference record of 17-7.
Cowley got off to a slow start, shooting 2-of-14 from the floor, and trailed 11-4 after one-quarter of play. The Lady Tigers would trail by as many as 17 points (26-9) before closing the first half on a 7-0 run to close within 26-16.
A pair of free throws by freshman Destiny Yates cut Butler’s lead to 26-18; however, Butler would push its lead back to 17 (50-33) before Yates buried a three-pointer just before the buzzer to pull Cowley within 50-36.
The Grizzlies would score the first six points of the fourth quarter and coasted to the 12-point win.
“We just could not handle Butler’s physical play,” Cowley head coach Todd Clark said. “They kind of bullied us into some mistakes.”
Cowley sophomore Ndack Mbengue continued her solid play by finishing with 19 points and nine rebounds, while fellow sophomore Anna Przyszlak added 14 points and 13 rebounds. However, Cowley’s other three starters combined to make only 2-of-28 shots from the floor.
“We did not do a good enough job of getting Ndack and Anna enough touches,” Clark said.
Nwankwo’s career night lifts Tigers to rout of No. 24-ranked Butler
Cowley College sophomore Jeff Nwankwo was in the “zone” during the Tiger basketball team’s game at No. 24-ranked Butler. Nwankwo scored 23 first-half points to help Cowley to a 40-20 advantage and finished with a career-high 37 points in the Tigers 81-65 road win Wednesday in El Dorado.
The Tigers earned a bye in the first round and will host the winner of Northwest Kansas Tech (15-15) and Dodge City (9-21) on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The Mavericks have won four games in a row and earned the seventh seed, while Dodge City has lost eight games in a row and is the 10th seed.
“We really respect both teams, as they are both well coached and both have offensive firepower,” Jackson said. “Everyone is 0-0, and the regular season doesn’t mean anything anymore. We need to stack some great days of practice to give ourselves a chance on Tuesday in the quarterfinals.”
The winner of Tuesday’s quarterfinal game will advance to play in Friday night’s semifinal game at 7:30 p.m. at the Hutchinson Sports Arena. The Region title game will be played Saturday at 5 p.m.
Wednesday, Nwankwo buried his fifth three-pointer of the game just before the halftime buzzer sounded and was 9-of-12 from the floor in the opening half.
It took just 10 seconds into the second half for Nwankwo to convert a three-point play. He followed that up with his sixth three-pointer and went over the 30-point mark as Cowley led 50-25.
The Tigers led 54-28 when Nwankwo picked up his fourth foul with 12:20 left to play. With Nwankwo on the bench, the Grizzlies attempted to come back and used a 20-3 run to pull within 57-48 with 8:36 remaining.
With its lead down to nine, Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson put Nwankwo back on the floor, and the sophomore forward scored back-to-back baskets to push the Tigers’ lead back to double digits.
A four-point play by sophomore Damare Smith increased Cowley’s lead to 74-56, and the Tigers cruised to the 15-point win and sweep of the season series against Butler.
“A road win is always a good win,” Jackson said. “It took some time for us to settle into the game, but once we got a few shots to fall, we got going on both sides of the ball in the first half.”
Nwankwo finished 15-of-23 from the floor and 6-of-8 from three-point range. This marked the sixth straight game Nwankwo has scored more than 20 points.
“Jeff had a special night,” Jackson said. “We need him to keep playing at a high level.”
The No. 11-ranked Tigers finish the regular season with a record of 26-4 overall and 21-3 in the Jayhawk Conference. Cowley finished second in the conference behind Barton (23-1) and will be the two-seed in the region tournament.
Butler, losers of three games in a row, were without leading scorer Jamichael Stillwell (12.4 points per game), who was suspended from the contest. The Grizzlies (22-8) finished in fourth place in the conference with a record of 17-7.
Kaleb Washington led Butler with 19 points and nine rebounds in the loss.
Sophomore Arzhante Dallas added 17 points for the Tigers, while sophomore post player Corey Thomas finished with 10 points, nine rebounds, and four blocked shots.
Tiger baseball team opens conference play with a pair of well-pitched victories
Opening conference play Thursday in Ark City, the Cowley College baseball team got solid pitching in both games to help them slip past Coffeyville by scores of 3-2 and 4-1.
“Every game is predicated by how your starting pitchers do,” Cowley head coach Darren Burroughs said. “I thought all five guys that threw for us did well. It was two good wins to open the conference season.”
Cowley, winners of four games in a row, is now 10-6 on the season and 2-0 in the Jayhawk Conference. Coffeyville falls to 6-9 and 0-2 in the conference.
On Thursday, Cowley starting pitcher Iziah Salinas did not allow a hit in the game’s first four innings and was cruising along with a 2-0 lead. However, Salinas walked four straight batters in the top of the fifth inning, and was removed from the mound after walking Coffeyville’s Ethan Gillespie with the bases loaded.
Barrett Morgan (1-0) relieved Salinas on the mound and allowed the tying run to score on a well-executed suicide squeeze bunt for a base hit by Jaden Hill before getting Carson Miller to ground into a double play to end the inning.
With Morgan tossing 1-2-3 sixth and seventh innings, the Tigers had an opportunity to win the game in the bottom of the seventh. Sophomore Jadyn McNealy led off the seventh by reaching base on an error by Coffeyville shortstop Adrian Dominguez. McNealy then advanced to second on a wild pitch by Coffeyville reliever Si Collins before scoring the winning run on a single by freshman Alex Conover.
The bunt for a hit by Hill was Coffeyville’s only hit in the game, while Cowley was limited to four hits by four Red Raven pitchers.
“It was a tough day to hit,” Burroughs said. “Our guys have got to learn to slow the game down a bit.”
Following the walk-off win of game one, Cowley got a pair of run-scoring singles from designated hitter Dawson Williams and an RBI groundout by catcher Brock Romero to lead 3-0 after four innings of play.
Starting pitcher Cody Airington (1-1) pitched into the fifth inning for the Tigers and was relieved by Cade Perkins, who went on to toss three scoreless innings of relief to go along with three strikeouts. Airington allowed two hits and one run in 4 2/3 innings pitched while striking out six and walking two.
Tiger left-fielder Kade Sheldon singled leading off the bottom of the sixth inning, stole second, advanced to third on a single by Hunter Alvord, and came around to score Cowley’s final run on a sacrifice fly by Romero.
Freshman Tallen Bagwell would come on to pitch the final 1 1/3 innings and got Coffeyville’s Carson Miller to line out to second with runners at the corner to end the game.
Hitting in the five through seven spots in the batting order, Sheldon, Alvord, and Williams had two hits apiece as the Tigers finished with 11 hits in the victory.
Coffeyville starting pitcher James Wise took the loss after allowing nine hits and three runs in five innings.
The teams will remain in Arkansas City to play another doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m.
“It’s still early March, so we are looking to see improvement and growth from our team each time we go out there and play,” Burroughs said.
Game one R H E
Coffeyville 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 – 2 1 1
Cowley 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 – 3 4 0
Game two R H E
Coffeyville 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 – 1 7 1
Cowley 0 1 0 2 0 1 0 0 x – 4 11 0
Tiger softball team rallies to pull off road sweep
After shutting out host Northern Oklahoma College-Enid 3-0 in the first game of Thursday’s doubleheader in Enid, OK, the Cowley College softball team scored six runs in the top of the seventh inning of game two to come from behind and win 7-2 and sweep the doubleheader.
Cowley improves its record to 19-8 on the season, while NOC-Enid falls to 8-12.
“It was good to see our team go on the road for a competitive series and get a sweep,” Cowley head coach Jenny Hoyt said. “NOC Enid has a competitive team, which I thought our pitchers did a great job of keeping their line up off balance and getting our defense routine outs.”
In game one, Cowley’s Mikah Vann improved her record to 9-3 on the season by pitching a complete game two-hit shutout. Vann struck out seven and walked two.
Cowley scored all three of its runs in the third inning. Jamie Molina had a two-run single in the three-run third, and Shayne Roberts had two of the Lady Tigers’ five hits in the victory.
In game two, Cowley turned a rare triple play when Roberts caught a fly ball in centerfield, then fired home to Raelynn Sandlin to get the runner out at the plate, then Sandlin threw the ball to Lyric Perry to complete the triple play.
“We had a couple of defensive plays in game two that helped our momentum for the offensive side,” Hoyt said.
With the score tied 1-1, the Lady Jets scratched across a run in the bottom of the sixth to take a 2-1 lead. Down to its final three outs, Cowley broke the game open with six runs in the top of the seventh inning.
Sophomore Karleigh Bell tripled and drove in three runs, while Lady Tiger starting pitcher Jaiden Swanson helped her cause at the plate by going 2-for-2. Swanson (9-4) went the distance on the mound, allowing six hits and one earned run while striking out five.
“It was good to see Jaiden producing not only from the pitching side but also bringing a bat to our lineup,” Hoyt said.
Cowley will play a doubleheader at Barton on Tuesday at 3 p.m. and Butler on Saturday, March 16 at noon.
“This next week will be another test on the road against two competitive teams in Kansas, and we will have to play good softball to win,” Hoyt said.
Game one R H E
Cowley 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 – 3 4 0
NOC 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 0 2 0
Game two R H E
Cowley 0 0 0 0 1 0 6 – 7 10 1
NOC 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 – 2 6 2
