Garden City holds off Cowley 65-56

The Cowley College men's basketball team struggled to find a rhythm offensively in a 65-56 home loss against Garden City Wednesday night inside W.S. Scott Auditorium.

The loss drops Cowley's record to 14-12 overall and 8-12 in the Jayhawk Conference, while Garden City improves its record to 18-7 overall and 13-7 in the conference.                     

"We played hard and gave ourselves a chance; we just couldn't throw it in the ocean tonight," Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson said.

The Tigers fell behind 21-11 before climbing back to within 24-20 thanks to a three-pointer by Mekhi Cameron at the halftime buzzer. Cowley shot only 25 percent in the opening half yet trailed by only four.

Cowley would grab the lead on three occasions in the second half but could never go in front by more than one possession.

With Cowley trailing 54-51 in the game's final two minutes and needing a stop on the defensive end, Garden City freshman Boston Harker drained a three-pointer that seemed to be the dagger. Harker scored all 18 of his points in the second half as the Broncbusters held on for the win.

Xavier Washington led the Tigers with 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the floor. Freshman Corey Thomas also played well, adding 12 points and eight rebounds on 5-of-7 shooting.

"Corey was a bright spot for us. We hope he can build off this performance," Jackson said.

Cowley will now prepare to host last-place Colby Community College Saturday at 1 p.m. The Trojans are 5-21 overall and 2-18 in the conference.

"We've had great practices; I just hope we start seeing the reward of the hard work," Jackson said. "Colby has some good scorers that can really cause some problems. We will need to find a way to stop them. We also need to start putting a few more points on the board."

Box score:

Garden City (65): Jaborri McGhee 6-12 3-5 16, Boston Harker 5-10 7-7 18, DaJion Humphrey 1-5 0-0 3, David Elliott 3-9 1-2 7, Buru Naivalurua 7-11 2-2 17, Logan Freeman 0-3 4-4 4, Cooper Autry 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 22-50 17-20 65.

Cowley (56): Mekhi Cameron 4-12 2-2 12, Xavier Washington 5-8 2-2 14, Jeff Nwankwo 3-10 1-2 7, Mooch Austin 4-12 0-0 9, Corey Thomas 5-7 1-1 12, Xavier Valley 1-4 0-0 2, Damare Smith 0-3 0-0 0, Demetrius Rives 0-5 0-0 0, Trevion Alexander 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 22-62 6-7 56.

Three-pointers: Garden 4-15 (Humphrey 1-4, McGhee 1-2, Harker 1-2, Naivalurua 1-1, Elliott 0-4, Feltman 0-2), Cowley 6-24 (Cameron 2-7, Washington 2-3, Austin 1-3, Thomas 1-3, Smith 0-3, Valley 0-2, Nwankwo 0-2, Rives 0-1). Rebounds: Garden 30 (Humphrey 9), Cowley 36 (Nwankwo 10). Assists: Garden 5 (McGhee 3), Cowley 11 (Austin 4). Turnovers: Garden 5, Cowley 9. Total fouls: Garden 11, Cowley 14. Fouled out: Nwankwo. Technicals: Nwankwo.