Coffeyville pulls away late to defeat Cowley 71-61

In a matchup of teams starting to find themselves, the Cowley College men's basketball team battled hard before losing 71-61 Monday night at Coffeyville Community College. The loss snapped the Tigers' three-game winning streak.

Cowley led for the majority of the first half before Love Bettis hit a three-pointer late in the half to give the Red Ravens a 26-25 halftime lead.

"We came ready to play and were physical in that opening half," Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson said.

The second half featured seven ties, the last of which coming at 54-54 following a turn-around jumper by sophomore Raishaun Brown with 6:10 left to play.

Trailing 64-61 with two minutes remaining, Cowley's Mekhi Cameron had a potential game-tying three-pointer bounce off the rim. Coffeyville, which went 22-of-28 from the free-throw line, made its free throws down the stretch to hold on for the win.

Cowley made just 4-of-6 free-throw attempts as the Red Ravens out-scored the Tigers by 18 at the charity stripe.

"We shot as many threes as we did twos and were not on attack mode," Jackson said.

Love Bettis, who led all scorers with 25 points, went 6-of-6 from the foul line and 7-of-10 from the floor. Coffeyville, winners of four games in a row, improves its record to 9-8 overall and 6-5 in the conference.

Clarence King went 5-of-8 from three-point range and led the Tigers with 22 points. Sophomore transfer Chris Spenkuch provided Cowley with a spark off the bench, finishing with three points, four rebounds and two assists in 15 minutes of action.

"Chris is starting to play better and is earning an opportunity to start," Jackson said. "He was flying around and making things happen."

Cowley is now 9-8 overall and 5-6 in the Jayhawk Conference.

The Tigers will return home to take on conference-leading Dodge City Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. The No. 10-ranked Conquistadors are 16-2 overall and 11-1 in the Jayhawk Conference. Dodge City knocked off Cowley 73-48 back on November 20.

"Dodge kicked our butt the first time we played them. If we have any pride we will bring a different level of energy on Wednesday," Jackson said. "We hope to keep our home momentum going, but will need to play a full 40 minutes if we want to have a chance."

Box score:

Cowley (61): Raishaun Brown 5-9 0-0 12, Mekhi Cameron 3-10 0-0 9, Clarence King 8-14 1-1 22, Xavier Valley 4-9 1-1 10, Kennedy Willis 1-2 1-2 3, Xavier Washington 0-2 0-0 0, Emmanuel Austin 1-1 0-0 2, Chris Spenkuch 1-3 1-2 3, KJ Spiller 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 23-52 4-6 61.

Coffeyville: Dayshawn Wiley 1-6 0-0 2, Love Bettis 7-10 6-6 25, Deng Mayar 4-5 2-2 10, Blaise Keita 3-6 1-3 7, AJ McBride 3-8 5-7 12, Noah Butler 0-0 2-4 2, Jules Bikoy 2-6 1-1 6, Nathan Johnson 1-3 3-3 5, Oluwatimisola Toluogunkoya 0-0 2-2 2. Totals: 21-44 22-28 71.

Three-pointers: Cowley 11-26 (King 5-8, Cameron 3-8, Brown 2-4, Valley 1-4, Washington 0-1, Spiller 0-1), Coffeyville 7-18 (Bettis 5-7, McBride 1-4, Bikoy 1-4, Wiley 0-3). Rebounds: Cowley 24 (Valley 6), Coffeyville 26 (Keita 9). Assists: Cowley 8 (King, Spenkuch, Spiller 2), Coffeyville 11 (Wiley 4). Turnovers: Cowley 17, Coffeyville 17. Total fouls: Cowley 21, Coffeyville 10. Fouled out: Spenkuch. Technicals: none.