Tigers beat Allen, let lead slip away in loss to NEO

Playing a pair of home games inside W.S. Scott Auditorium, the No. 25-ranked Cowley College men's basketball team blew past Allen Community College 95-50 on Friday before watching a 19-point lead evaporate against 14^th-ranked Northeastern Oklahoma College A&M in a 75-68 loss on Saturday.

The Tigers are now 3-1 on the season.

On Friday, Cowley led 22-15 before closing the first half on a 27-7 run to lead 49-22. The Tigers had nine players score in the opening half and were led by sophomore Shamarrie Hugie's 11 points. Cowley forced Allen into 14 first-half turnovers and out-scored the Red Devils 20-4 on points off turnovers.

Cowley continued to pour it on in the second half and went up by 40 points (77-37) on Hugie's fourth three-pointer. All 12 Tigers that played scored in the win as Hugie finished with a game-high 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the floor.

Marcus Whitlock Jr. added 14 points, while Winston Allen and Leslie Owens scored 12 and 11, respectively.

Cowley forced Allen into 34 turnovers.

"I thought we did a good job speeding Allen up," Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson said. "We forced a lot of turnovers, which led to some easy points."

The Red Devils (1-3) were led by Malachi Schilreff's 10 points.

Cowley returned to the court on Saturday and used a 23-3 run to lead Northeastern Oklahoma 36-17. However, the Norsemen closed the first half on a 15-3 run to trim the Tigers' lead to 39-32.

Cowley scored the first four points out of halftime to go back in front by double figures (43-32) before NEO started its comeback. A three-pointer by the Norsemen's Damarion Vann-Kelly tied the game at 56-56 with 6:40 remaining, and a three-point play by Jamaria Clark gave NEO its first lead since 14-13 at 64-61 with 4:50 left to play.

Trailing 71-68, Hugie missed a shot inside, and Cowley was forced to foul. NEO went 4-of-6 from the foul line in the game's final 18 seconds as they held on for the 75-68 road win.

"Credit to NEO, they made big plays down the stretch, and we did not," Jackson said. "We have got to learn to finish stronger around the basket. I thought we gave this one away,"

Whitlock scored 13 of his team-high 18 points in the first half, while Hugie also finished with 18 points but shot only 4-of-16 from the floor.

Clark led five NEO players in double figures with 15 points off the bench as the Norsemen improved to 3-1 on the season.

After shooting 52 percent from the floor in the first half, Cowley shot only 30 percent over the game's final 20 minutes of play.

Cowley will attempt to bounce back when it plays its first road game of the season on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa. The Tigers defeated the Mavericks 96-76 inside W.S. Scott Auditorium on November 3.

However, former NOC-Tonkawa head coach Donnie Jackson, said his team should prepare for a challenging road environment. 

"Tonkawa will be a war," Jackson said. "It is always tough to go on the road, especially down to NOC. We will need to be ready for their best."