Tiger basketball team suffers lopsided loss at Independence

Playing at Independence Community College on Wednesday, the Cowley College men's basketball team shot a season-low 24 percent while allowing the Pirates to shoot 60 percent from the floor in a 102-38 defeat.

Things were tough for the Tigers from the start as head coach Donnie Jackson was forced to call a timeout early in the game with Cowley trailing 13-3. After pulling within 17-8, Independence would use a 28-1 run to lead 45-9.

The Tigers would go into halftime trailing 47-17.

"We did not show up," Jackson said. "We stayed on the bus and never got off."

Unfortunately, it did not get better as Independence scored the first six points of the second half and cruised to the 64-point home win.

The Pirates out-scored Cowley by 51 points from beyond the arc as they made 19-of-31 three-point attempts compared to the Tigers going 2-of-22 from long distance.

Bouna Kebe came off the bench to lead Independence with 26 points while going 6-of-10 from three-point range. The Pirates had four players hit three or more three-pointers in the victory. Alon Druker (11 points, 10 assists) and Melvyn Ebonkoli (10 points, 10 rebounds) added double-doubles for the Pirates, which improved to 5-8 overall and 3-4 in the Jayhawk Conference.

Mekhi Cameron and Xavier Washington led Cowley with nine points apiece. The Tigers are now 8-4 overall and 2-4 in the Jayhawk Conference.

Cowley will try to put the loss behind them as they prepare to host Seward County Saturday at 3 p.m. The Saints (5-5) have dropped four games in a row and are 2-5 in the Jayhawk Conference.

Box score:

Cowley (38): Mekhi Cameron 3-12 2-2 9, Mooch Austin 1-4 1-2 3, Damare Smith 1-6 0-0 2, Demetrius Rives 2-7 2-2 7, Trevion Alexander 1-4 0-2 2, Raishaun Brown 0-4 0-0 0, Xavier Washington 3-6 3-3 9, Xavier Valley 1-5 0-0 2, Cameron Jernigan 0-2 0-0 0, Corey Thomas 2-3 0—0 4, Lam Kuany 0-1 0-0 0, Jackson Greene 0-4 0-0 0. Totals: 14-58 8-11 38.

Indy: (102) Johan Nziemi 8-9 0-0 17, Kam Parker 3-7 2-2 11, Rashaun Parker 2-3 0-0 6, Alon Druker 4-5 0-0 11, Melvyn Ebonkoli 5-8 0-0 10, Bouna Kebe 10-14 0-0 26, Ja'Tavis Groomes 1-7 2-2 5, Josh Smith 6-10 1-1 16, Aadam Coulibaly 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 39-65 5-5 102.

Three-pointers: Cowley 2-22 (Cameron 1-6, Rives 1-3, Valley 0-4, Smith 0-3, Brown 0-2, Greene 0-2, Alexander 0-1, Washington 0-1), Indy 19-31 (Kebe 6-10, Druker 3-4, K. Parker 3-5, Smith 3-5, R. Parker 2-3, Groomes 1-3, Nziemi 1-1). Rebounds: Cowley 26 (Brown, Kuany 4), Indy 37 (Ebonkoli 10). Assists: Cowley 9 (Smith 3), Indy 31 (Druker 10). Turnovers: Cowley 19, Indy 12. Total fouls: Cowley 5, Indy 8. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.