Tigers post lopsided 83-54 win over Allen County

Opening the second half with a 10-0 run, the Cowley College men's basketball team built a 19-point lead (49-30) against Allen County and never looked back in an 83-54 win Wednesday night inside W.S. Scott Auditorium.

"I thought we were ready to play coming out of halftime," Cowley head coach Tommy DeSalme said. "We talked about the need to take control of the game and the guys did that."

Curtis Evans scored 11 of his 15 points in the second half and added a team-high 12 rebounds in the win. Kamren Belin also finished with a double-double as he contributed 14 points and 10 rebounds, while Gavin Brown chipped in with six points and nine rebounds. The trio helped Cowley grab 30 offensive rebounds and out-rebound the Red Devils 54-32.

Allen County's Terrell Shears entered the game averaging 13.8 points and a conference-best 12.2 rebounds per game, but was held to only three points and six rebounds.

"We made Shears a priority and Curtis, Kamren and Gavin did a great job of rebounding the ball," DeSalme said. "Gavin is our team leader and does so many things that don't show up on the stat sheet."

James Milliken led Cowley with 16 points. With the game comfortably in hand, freshmen Kameron Ptacek and Dominique Smith came off the bench to score their first points of the season.

"They practice hard every day, so it was pretty cool for them to get their first collegiate points," DeSalme said.

Canon Fields, who was part of Cowley's Jayhawk East champion team during the 2009-2010 season, led Allen County with 17 points, six rebounds and five assists. However, Fields also committed six turnovers, while Cowley turned the ball over only seven times as a team.

Allen County drops to 7-12 overall and 1-6 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. Cowley is now 15-4 overall and remains tied with Neosho County for second place in the conference with a record of 5-2.

The Tigers will now turn their focus to Saturday's game at Johnson County at 4 p.m. The Cavaliers are only 7-12 overall and 2-5 in the conference, but have lost five games by four points or less.

"We have got to continue to play with confidence because Johnson County is well coached and similar to us in size and experience," DeSalme said.

Live streaming of Saturday's game can be heard by going to www.cowleytigers.com and clicking on the audio link.

Box score:
Allen County (54): Canon Fields 7-14 2-2 17, Rickey Hollis 1-6 1-2 3, Terence Williams 2-5 2-2 6, Terrell Shears 1-5 1-2 3, Thomas Daniel 4-6 0-0 8, Tyler Myrick 1-1 0-0 2, Tyler Jordan 0-1 0-0 0, Chris Parker 2-6 0-0 5, Seth Walden 2-7 0-0 6, Drelan Tripplet 2-4 0-0 4. Totals: 22-55 6-8 54.

Cowley (83): James Milliken 7-18 2-3 16, EJ Dobbins 1-5 2-2 5, Adonis Bailey 3-4 0-1 7, Kamren Belin 5-14 2-3 14, Gavin Brown 3-10 0-0 6, Zach Nelson 2-11 1-2 6, Ryan Devers 1-3 1-2 3, Anthony White 1-1 0-0 2, Maurice Williams 1-1 2-3 4, Kameron Ptacek 1-1 0-0 3, Dominique Smith 0-1 2-2 2, Tajh Downs 0-0 0-0 0, Curtis Evans 7-12 0-0 15. Totals: 32-81 12-18 83.

Three-pointers: Allen County 4-19 (Walden 2-7, Fields 1-5, Parker 1-2, Shears 0-3, Hollis 0-2), Cowley 7-23 (Belin 2-3, Evans 1-2, Bailey 1-2, Ptacek 1-1, Nelson 1-7, Dobbins 1-2, Milliken 0-3, Devers 0-1, Brown 0-1, Smith 0-1). Rebounds: Allen 32 (Fields, Shears 6), Cowley 54 (Evans 12). Assists: Allen 9 (Fields 5), Cowley 15 (Devers 5). Turnovers: Allen 16, Cowley 7. Total fouls: Allen 14, Cowley 10. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.

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