Tigers never trail in a 79-55 win at Pratt

The No. 12-ranked Cowley College men's basketball team shot 50 percent and never trailed in a 79-55 win at Pratt on Saturday.

The victory, Cowley's third in a row, improves the Tigers' record to 24-4 overall and 19-3 in the Jayhawk Conference. Pratt falls to 8-19 overall and 5-16 in the conference.

On Saturday, Cowley raced out to an 11-2 lead and held Pratt to 1-of-19 shooting from three-point range while building a 41-24 halftime lead.

The Tigers shot 60 percent in the second half and had its lead grow to as many as 27 points in the 24-point road win.

Cowley sophomore Jeff Nwankwo led all players with 21 points and 12 rebounds on 8-of-15 shooting from the floor. Fellow sophomore post-player Corey Thomas added 18 points and 13 rebounds.

"We were able to establish getting the ball inside, and I felt like that caused them some problems," Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson said. "For the most part, I felt like we kept being aggressive and didn't settle in the second half."

Zion Cruz led Pratt with 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting.

Cowley remains in second place in the conference, one and a half games behind Barton (20-1) with two games remaining. The Tigers will host Cloud County on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the team's final regular season home game. The T-Birds are 19-8 overall and 14-7 in the Jayhawk Conference. Cloud handed Cowley a 78-62 defeat on January 13 in Concordia, KS.

"Cloud really whooped up on us up in Concordia, so we will need to have two great days of practice to have any opportunity to beat them," Jackson said. "They are playing at a really high level."