Region Champs! Tigers defeat defending national champs to punch their ticket to Hutchinson

They were the best in the regular season of Jayhawk Conference basketball, and now they are the best in the postseason as well as the Cowley College men's basketball team defeated Barton 72-62 in the NJCAA Division I Region VI Men's Basketball Championship held Saturday night inside Fort Hays State University in Hays, KS.

Having played more than 100 years of basketball, the top-seed Tigers were playing for just the fifth Region title in the history of the program when they took on the third-seed and defending national champion Barton Cougars in the title game.

Cowley (29-4) defeated Barton (25-8) both times the teams faced in the regular season, but the Cougars had won eight of their past 10 since losing at Cowley on February 1.

"There is nothing better than to say you swept the defending national champions in all three games we played them this year," Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson said.

The 29 wins are the Tigers' most since the 2008-2009 season and this marks Cowley's first Region title since the 2020-21 season.

"This means so much to us being only the fifth time in Cowley College history that we have won the Region VI Championship," Jackson said.

Cowley started slow in the title game as coach Jackson was forced to call timeout with his team trailing 6-0 just over three minutes into the contest. The Cougars' lead would grow to 8-0 before Tiger freshman CJ Majors buried a three-pointer from the corner to get Cowley on the board nearly 4 ½ minutes into the contest.

Another freshman, Kyden Thompson, would hit a three on the Tigers' next possession, and Cowley began to settle in. The Tigers would pull within 17-16 on a three-pointer by sophomore Marcus Zeigler, and Cowley took its first lead when sophomore Shamarrie Hugie scored to put Cowley in front 21-20 with 10 minutes left in the opening half.

After being held to only four points in Cowley's semifinal win over Butler, the Tigers' leading scorer, Marcus Whitlock Jr., scored 16 points in the first half, and Cowley went into halftime with a 40-37 lead.

The Tigers went 9-of-20 from three-point range in the first half with Whitlock going 4-of-8 from deep.

Following q first half that featured seven lead changes, Whitlock scored the opening basket of the second half as Cowley had its largest lead of the contest at 42-37.

"Marcus has been clutch all season long," Jackson said.

The Tigers would continue to stay in front of the Cougars but did not lead by more than five points before Barton's Kandre Kindell hit a pair of free throws to put the Cougars ahead 49-48 with 9:20 remaining.

Sophomore point guard Marcus Zeigler picked up his fourth foul with 8:16 left to play and had to head to the bench with Cowley leading 51-49.

After Barton tied the game at 51-51, Cowley responded with eight straight points to lead 59-51 following a three-pointer by Emarquis Jones with 6:45 left. The lead would remain at eight (65-57) after a basket by Thompson with just over three minutes remaining.

Cowley would go on to seal the victory from the foul line in the final two minutes and went on to win by 10.

Whitlock finished with a game-high 23 points, and Cowley made 11 three-pointers in the victory.

"I wanted to put the game yesterday behind me and do whatever I could to help the team win," Whitlock said.

 Dallas Whitney and Shamarrie Hugie added 10 points apiece.

Sebastian Muchitsch led the Cougars with 14 points, but the Cougars shot just 35.9 percent. Barton's Brent Moss and Keandre Kindell came into the game averaging a combined 33 points and were held to 18 points on 7-of-30 shooting.

The Tigers will await their seed at the 16-team NJCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball Championship held March 22-29 in Hutchinson, KS.

"It all starts with our sophomores and MJ's (Marcus Whitlock) energy," Jackson said. "Defense and ball movement will be key for us at the national tournament."

The box score can be found at: https://tinyurl.com/2cw7nb7w