Second half collapse dooms Lady Tigers in loss at Butler

The Cowley College women's basketball team got off to a good start in its game at No. 24-ranked Butler Community College on Wednesday before the wheels came off in the second half. The Lady Tigers saw a one-point halftime deficit turn into a lopsided 106-69 defeat.

Cowley led 28-25 after one quarter of play and trailed just 50-49 at the half thanks to 27 combined points from Baylee Fincher and Gracie Gilpin. However, the duo combined to score just three second-half points and Butler out-scored the Lady Tigers 56-20 over the final 20 minutes of play.

Butler (22-5 overall, 17-5 Jayhawk Conference) trailed 56-55 before closing the third quarter on a 24-1 run. Cowley had no answer for Butler's inside duo of Freddie Wallace (24 points) and Kaylee Nero (21 points) as the two combined to go 21-of-31 from the floor.

Butler shot over 50 percent in each quarter and finished shooting 55.1 percent from the floor.

After going 9-of-19 from three-point range in the opening half, Cowley made just 1-of-14 three-point attempts after halftime.

With Fincher's 16 points, the three-year super-sophomore is now only 35 points behind Theresa Cotton's school-record for points in a career.

With the loss, Cowley (14-14 overall, 9-13 Jayhawk Conference) falls to ninth place in the Jayhawk Conference, one-game behind Cloud County (10-12) for the final home playoff spot. The teams will meet up for an important conference contest Saturday at 2 p.m. in Concordia, KS.

The box score can be found at: https://kjccc.org/sports/wbkb/2022-23/boxscores/20230222_r5w8.xml?view=boxscore