Tigers’ complete series sweep against NOC-Tonkawa with 86-63 road win

Facing Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa for the second time this season, the Cowley College men's basketball team completed the season series sweep with an 86-63 road win on Wednesday in Tonkawa, OK.

Cowley, which defeated the Mavericks 96-76 on November 3 in Arkansas City, improves to 4-1 while the Mavericks fall to 2-5.

Wednesday's contest was back and forth throughout the majority of the first half before an alley-oop dunk by Cowley's Avante Nichols four seconds before halftime gave the Tigers a 31-29 halftime lead.

"Kyden (Thompson) and Avante (Nichols) connecting on that alley-oop really gave us some juice," Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson said.

Cowley's lead would grow to double digits (48-38) on a pair of free throws by freshman Emarquis Jones with 13:53 left to play. The Mavericks would close within 60-54 before a three-point play by Cowley's Leslie Owens started a 20-3 run by the Tigers that essentially put the game away as Cowley went on to the 23-point road win.

"Our confidence really took off in the second half, and we were able to build on the lead," Jackson said.

After scoring a career-high 26 points in the teams' earlier meeting, Tiger sophomore Shamarrie Hugie finished with 22 points and eight rebounds in Wednesday's victory.

"Shamarrie started getting downhill and getting easy baskets at the rim," Jackson said.

Thompson, a freshman from McPherson, had his most complete game as a Tiger, finishing with eight points, eight assists, five rebounds, and four steals.  

"I thought Kyden was key, he was all over the place," Jackson said.

Owens went 10-of-10 from the foul line and finished with 16 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. While, Nichols went 6-of-7 from the floor and finished with 13 points and six rebounds.

Cowley had 11 players score in the victory and shot 53.2 percent from the floor (33-of-62) and 89.5 percent from the free-throw line (17-of-19).

The Tigers will return to Arkansas City to host the Southwestern College JV on Friday at 7 p.m.

"We want to try and fine-tune and improve on some things with conference play looming," Jackson said.