Cowley beats Cloud 69-49, clinches home playoff game

Allowing a season-low 49 points in a 69-49 home win over Cloud County Saturday inside W.S. Scott Auditorium, the Cowley College men's basketball team guaranteed themselves of hosting a First-Round playoff game on Saturday, February 26.

On Saturday, Cowley led just 9-7 before an 18-0 run helped blow the game open. Cowley would go into halftime leading 32-16.

The Tigers' lead would grow to as many as 28 points (62-34) following a three-pointer by sophomore Raishaun Brown with 6:46 left to play and they were never threatened in the 20-point win.

Cowley is now 15-14 overall and moves into a tie for sixth place in the Jayhawk Conference with a record of 11-12.

"The guys were locked in," Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson said. "Getting that first-round playoff game was a goal of ours. We really guarded a lot better than we did when we played up there."

Cowley went 11-of-26 from three-point range and were led by Raishaun Brown hitting all four of his three-point attempts and finishing with 16 points and six assists. Clarence King added 18 points, while Xavier Valley finished with 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting.

"The ball was flowing. I enjoy when everybody is involved," Jackson said.

Cowley out-shot Cloud County 49 percent to 35.8 percent. Joe Kearney led the T-Birds with 12 points as they fell to 13-16 overall and 9-14 in the conference.

Cowley will close out the regular season by playing at Pratt Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Pratt is 12-16 overall and 7-15 in the Jayhawk Conference.

"We still have work to be done and can get a higher seed," Jackson said. "Pratt is a physical team and can really rebound the basketball. We will need to be ready to play tough."

Cloud (49): Nate Duckworth 1-7 0-0 3, Joe Kearney 5-9 1-3 12, Corey Sawyer 0-4 0-2 0, Justin Graham 5-8 0-0 10, Malang Athian 2-12 0-0 4, Savian Edwards 1-4 0-0 3, Nikola Milojevic 0-2 0-0 0, Jaelen Treml 0-0 0-0 0, Travis Beetch 0-0 3-5 3, Uros Stepanovic 0-1 0-0 0, Zion Obanla 3-3 2-2 9, Brett Brees 0-0 0-0 0, Jalen Smith 2-3 1-2 5. Totals: 19-53 7-14 49.

Cowley (69): Raishaun Brown 5-7 2-2 16, Mekhi Cameron 2-7 0-0 5, Clarence King 6-14 3-4 18, Xavier Valley 6-7 1-2 16, Kennedy Willis 3-4 0-0 6, Xavier Washington 3-5 1-2 7, Emmanuel Austin 0-1 1-2 1, Christian Williams 0-5 0-0 0, Trevion Alexander 0-1 0-0 0, KJ Spiller 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 25-51 8-12 69.

Three-pointers: Cloud 4-21 (Kearney 1-5, Duckworth 1-4, Edwards 1-4, Obanla 1-1, Athian 0-3, Sawyer 0-2, Graham 0-1, Milojevic 0-1), Cowley 11-26 (Brown 4-4, King 3-6, Valley 3-4, Cameron 1-6, Williams 0-4, Washington 0-2). Rebounds: Cloud 25 (Obanla 7), Cowley 33 (Washington 7). Assists: Cloud 9 (Kearney 3), Cowley 17 (Brown 6). Turnovers: Cloud 7, Cowley 6. Total fouls: Cloud 8, Cowley 11. Fouled out: none. Technicals: Kearney.