Tigers build big early lead, win 80-65 at Cloud County

Playing at Cloud County on Saturday, the No. 6-ranked Cowley College men's basketball team raced out to a 22-2 lead and never looked back in an impressive 80-65 win in Concordia, KS.

After the T-Birds scored the contest's first basket, Cowley scored the next 22 points and built a commanding 39-21 halftime lead.

The Tigers would score the first four points of the second half to lead 43-21 following a layup by CJ Majors and led by as many as 23 points (69-46) in the road win.

"We had a nice start to the game," Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson said. "Cloud is a tough place to play, but we were able to take the crowd out of it. That was a big key."

Cowley improves to 15-2 overall and 10-1 in the Jayhawk Conference. The loss drops Cloud County's record to 9-6 overall and 3-6 in the conference.

All five Cowley starters scored in double figures, and each of the 12 Tigers that played scored in the victory.

"We had balanced scoring which has been a strength of our team.," Jackson said.

Sophomore Marcus Zeigler led Cowley with 13 points, while Shamarrie Hugie added 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Elidjah Savane came off the bench to lead Cloud County with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Cowley remains one-half game in front of second-place Coffeyville (9-1) and one and a half games ahead of No. 5-ranked Butler (8-2), whom the Tigers will host on Saturday at 3 p.m.

"We will need to have a great week of practice because Butler is well-coached and is one of the top teams in the country for a reason," Jackson said. "We will need to be ready to give our best effort."

Box score:

Cowley (80): Shamarrie Hugie 4-12 2-4 10, Emarquis Jones 5-8 1-1 11, Marcus Zeigler 6-12 0-0 13, CJ Majors 4-6 2-2 11, Marcus Whitlock Jr. 3-10 2-2 10, Avante Nichols 4-6 1-2 9, Winston Allen 0-0 2-2 2, Dallas Whitney 2-4 0-1 5, Kyden Thompson 1-2 1-1 3, Teagan Charles 1-3 0-0 2, Austin Fortune 0-0 1-2 1, Xavier Alexander 1-1 0-0 3. Totals: 31-64 12-17 80.

Cloud (65): Matthew Garber 2-6 0-0 6, Kuel Akot 6-13 0-2 16, Keyon Garret-Miller 3-10 2-2 8, Fallou Koite 1-2 0-0 2, Takeo Moore 0-0 0-0 0, Elidjah Savane 7-11 3-5 17, Syncere Burnette 2-10 3-6 8, Jiovanny Garcia 0-1 0-0 0, Dejuan Graise 3-4 1-2 8, Da'Ron Waller 0-1 0-0 0, Amare Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Vuk Zarubica 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 24-59 9-17 65.

Three-pointers: Cowley 6-16 (Whitlock 2-5, Zeigler 1-3, Majors 1-2, Whitney 1-2, Alexander 1-1, Hugie 0-2, Thompson 0-1), Cloud 8-25 (Akot 4-7, Garber 2-6, Burnette 1-5, Graise 1-1, Garret-Miller 0-3, Koite 0-1, Waller 0-1, Johnson 0-1). Rebounds: Cowley 41 (Hugie 13), Cloud 31 (Savane 11). Assists: Cowley 17 (Four players with 3), Cloud 6 (Garret-Miller 3). Turnovers: Cowley 12, Cloud 13. Total fouls: Cowley 14, Cloud 15. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.