Lady Tigers suffer disappointing 77-63 home loss

The Cowley College women's basketball team was uncharacteristically flat in a 77-63 loss to Cloud County Saturday inside W.S. Scott Auditorium.

The Lady Tigers were coming off a thrilling one-point victory over Butler on Wednesday, but could not keep the momentum going on Saturday.

"Such a disappointing performance coming off a big win," Cowley head coach Todd Clark said. "We got outplayed in every aspect."

Things started well as Cowley scored the game's first five points and led 20-18 after one quarter of play. However, the T-Birds out-scored Cowley 14-7 in the second quarter to grab a 32-27 halftime lead.

Paula Puzule, who led Cloud with 20 points, hit a three-pointer in the closing seconds of the third quarter to put the T-Birds up 10 (51-41) and proceeded to hit three more shots from beyond the arc in the final quarter as Cloud went on to the 14-point win.

Te Sopoaga added 16 points and 10 rebounds as the T-Birds improve to 14-15 overall and 10-13 in the Jayhawk Conference.

Lady Tiger sophomore post player Martyna Kowalska finished with a game-high 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting. However, the rest of the Lady Tigers struggled to make shots as they combined to make only 15-of-49 attempts from the floor.

"To play that poorly, especially offensively, was frustrating," Clark said.

Baylee Fincher and Carson Dean added 14 points a piece in the loss. Cowley (17-11) is now one game back of fourth place in the conference, with the top-four teams receiving a bye in the first-round of the Region VI playoffs.

The Lady Tigers will wrap up the regular season by playing at Pratt Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Pratt is 3-23 overall and 2-20 in the Jayhawk Conference. 

"We have got to play better on Wednesday," Clark said.

Box score:

Cloud (77): Paula Puzule 6-15 3-4 20, Shakira Smith 1-7 2-2 5, Rori Cox 5-15 5-6 15, Te Sopoaga 6-12 3-6 16, Kennedy Becker 3-4 2-2 8, Jessi Brummett 1-1 0-0 2, Kay Phillips 5-9 1-2 11, Kardae Gales 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 27-63 16-22 77.

Cowley (63): Milena Fromming 3-8 0-0 8, Baylee Fincher 5-13 0-0 14, Carson Dean 5-19 2-2 14, Shamahra Henderson 2-6 2-2 6, Martyna Kowalska 8-12 5-7 21, Onnahili Williams 0-3 0-0 0, Callie Scott 0-0 0-0 0, Jana Radovanovic 0-0 0-0 0, Lexi Rose 0-0 0-0 0, Nicolette Perez 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 23-61 9-11 63.

Three-pointers: Cloud 7-25 (Puzule 5-14, Smith 1-5, Sopoaga 1-4, Cox 0-2), Cowley 8-36 (Fincher 4-12, Dean 2-11, Fromming 2-7, Henderson 0-3, Williams 0-3). Rebounds: Cloud 38 (Sopoaga 10), Cowley 28 (Fincher 7). Assists: Cloud 17 (Smith, Sopoaga 4), Cowley 13 (Fromming 4). Turnovers: Cloud 11, Cowley 18. Total fouls: Cloud 11, Cowley 17. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.