Tigers pull away from pesky Colby squad to earn 91-81 road win

The No. 9-ranked Cowley College men's basketball team shot 56 percent from the floor and pulled away from host Colby Community College in the final minutes to pick up a 91-81 road win Sunday at the Colby Events Center.

The victory moves Cowley (22-4) back into second place in the Jayhawk Conference with a record of 17-3. The Tigers remain two games behind conference-leading Barton (19-1) with four regular season games remaining.

Coming off a gut-wrenching home loss to Hutchinson on Wednesday, it took Cowley a while to get things going on Sunday. Colby scored the first six points of Sunday's contest and led 17-8 following a pair of free throws by the Trojans' Christian Larry with 11:40 left in the opening half.

However, Cowley answered with a 10-0 run to grab its first lead of the game and got solid contributions from reserves Marcus Zeigler, Avante Nichols, Leslie Owens, and Shamarrie Hugie.

"We got off to a slow start, but our bench came in on our first round of substitutions and really got our energy going," Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson said.

Sophomore Jeff Nwankwo, who scored a career-high 33 points in the game against Hutchinson, scored 14 first-half points to help the Tigers to a 44-36 halftime lead.

The Tigers' lead would grow to 52-39 following a basket by sophomore Arzhante Dallas with 17:36 remaining, but the Trojans would not go away quietly and closed within 69-67 after a basket by Marco Malekinusic with 9:04 left to play.

Clinging to an 80-77 lead with three minutes remaining, the Tigers' 6'10" sophomore Corey Thomas scored seven straight points to help Cowley pull away for the 10-point victory.

"Our defense wasn't as good in the second half, but we made enough stops down the stretch, and CT (Corey Thomas) made a couple of big buckets to seal the game," Jackson said.

Thomas finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds and is now averaging 11.6 points and 9.7 rebounds per game.

Nwankwo finished with his second straight 30-point outing as he finished with 30 points, seven rebounds, and four steals on 10-of-15 shooting from the floor. Nwankwo is now averaging 17.3 points and 7.5 rebounds per game and has scored 89 points in the past three games.

"Jeff has been playing at a high level," Jackson said. "We need him to keep that going."

Dallas added 12 points, and Damare Smith finished with 10. Avante Nichols also played well, finishing with eight points and five boards, while Hugie and Owens each went 3-of-5 shooting with seven points apiece off the bench.

Alec Carlson and Christian Larry came off the bench to lead Colby with 21 points apiece, as the Trojans are now 9-16 overall and 5-14 in the conference.

Cowley will return home to face last-place Independence in its homecoming game on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. The Pirates are 1-24 overall and 0-19 in the conference but have the conference's leading scorer in Cory Curtis Jr., who averages 23 points per game.

"Independence has the leading scorer in our conference and can really shoot the three ball," Jackson said. "We haven't been guarding as well as we need to, and we will need to get back to doing that."

Box score:

Cowley (91): Avante Nichols 3-5 2-3 8, Jeff Nwankwo 10-15 7-8 30, Arzhonte Dallas 2-7 7-8 12, Damare Smith 4-9 0-0 10, Corey Thomas 5-8 2-2 14, Shamarrie Hugie 3-5 1-2 7, Ajai Flagg 0-1 0-0 0, Marcus Zeigler 2-2 0-0 4, Leslie Owens 3-5 0-0 6, Faustin Phanor 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 32-57 19-23 91.

Colby (81): Maxence Massadila 6-16 0-0 12, D'Necco Rucker 0-1 0-0 0, Raphael Nagau-Trouart 5-12 3-5 14, Marko Malekinusic 3-8 0-1 7, Mathias Mailath-Pokorny 0-2 1-4 1, Christian Larry 5-7 9-10 21, Alec Carlson 9-17 1-2 21, Bol Akok 2-3 1-2 5. Totals: 30-66 15-24 81.

Three-pointers: Cowley 8-17 (Nwankwo 3-5, Smith 2-5, Thomas 2-2, Dallas 1-3, Nichols 0-1, Hugie 0-1), Colby 6-19 (Carlson 2-6, Larry 2-3, Malekinusic 1-5, Nagau-Trouart 1-2, Massadila 0-3). Rebounds: Cowley 31 (Thomas 10), Colby 31 (Nagau-Trouart 7). Assists: Cowley 13 (Thomas 4), Colby 13 (Massadila 6). Turnovers: Cowley 14, Colby 11. Total fouls: Cowley 18, Colby 15. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.