Tigers remain unbeaten in conference play with a 90-70 home win

Returning to action for the first time in 25 days, the No. 9-ranked Cowley College men's basketball team shook off the rust of the long break to defeat Colby Community College 90-70 Wednesday night inside W.S. Scott Auditorium.

The victory improves Cowley's record to 13-1 overall and 8-0 in the Jayhawk Conference. Colby is now 5-8 overall and 1-6 in the conference.

On Wednesday, Colby raced out to an 11-2 lead and stayed in front until a three-pointer by Cowley sophomore Damare Smith gave the Tigers a 32-29 lead with 6:20 left in the first half.

Cowley would close the half on a 16-3 run to lead 48-37.

"After the slow start to the game, we started being more aggressive and playing more downhill," Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson said.

The Tigers continued to pour it on as they scored the first seven points of the second half to lead 55-37. Leading 61-49, Cowley scored the next 13 points and led 74-49 following three free throws by sophomore Jeff Nwankwo with 10:35 left to play.

Cowley was never threatened the rest of the way in the 20-point home win. The Tigers, winners of 11 games in a row, improve their record to 7-0 at home.

Smith and Nwankwo led Cowley with 19 points apiece, while sophomore post-player Corey Thomas added a double-double with 12 points and 15 rebounds.

"These guys truly care for each other," Jackson said. "We wanted to play as fast as we could and wear Colby out."

Freshman Leslie Owens also played well, scoring 13 of his 15 points in the second half.

Marko Maekinusic led Colby with 18 points but scored just two points after halftime.

The Tigers will attempt to remain unbeaten in the Jayhawk Conference when they play at Independence on Saturday at 4 p.m. The Pirates have lost 12 games in a row after opening the season with a 70-66 win at Labette.

"We remember what happened to us (by losing) at Indy last year, so we need to be ready to play an entire 40 minutes and continue getting better," Jackson said.

The box score from Wednesday's game can be found at https://kjccc.org/sports/mbkb/2023-24/boxscores/20240103_4ije.xml?view=boxscore