Slow start dooms Tigers in first conference defeat

Playing its first game in three weeks, the No. 6-ranked Cowley College men's basketball team could not shake off its slow start in a 70-62 loss at Hutchinson on Saturday.

The loss snapped the Tigers' 10-game win streak and dropped Cowley's record to 13-2 overall and 8-1 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. The Tigers remain one-half game in front of Butler and Coffeyville (7-1) for first place in the conference standings.

Hutchinson, the winner of three games in a row, improved to 5-3 in the conference.

Cowley and Hutchinson were tied 18-18 following a three-pointer by Marcus Whitlock Jr. with 7:33 remaining in the first half. However, Cowley would only score two points the rest of the half as the Blue Dragons went into halftime with a commanding 34-20 lead.

The 20 points scored by the Tigers were a season-low in a half.

"We had a very slow start offensively, and we were a step slow on both ends," Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson said.

Trailing 58-45 with less than seven minutes left, Cowley used a 14-4 run to close within 62-59 after a basket by Whitlock with 2:41 remaining.

That would be as close as the Tigers would get as Hutchinson pulled away by making 22-of-31 free three attempts in the second half. Jacquez Thornton made 13-of-14 free-throw attempts and finished with a game-high 23 points.

"We tried to make a push late in the game, but we just didn't have the juice it takes to win," Jackson said. "They were the aggressors and we weren't."

Cowley shot just 37 percent and turned the ball over 17 times while being held to a season-low 62 points. Whitlock led the Tigers with 12 points, while Marcus Zeigler added 11. Dallas Whitney, making his second appearance of the season, came off the bench to finish with 11 points and six rebounds.

Cowley will attempt to start a new winning streak when they host Garden City Community College on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. The Broncbusters are 7-6 overall and 2-5 in the Jayhawk Conference.

"We have an extremely talented Garden City team coming in and will need to hit the reset button and find a way to have two great practices heading into Wednesday," Jackson said.

The box score can be found at: https://kjccc.org/sports/mbkb/2024-25/boxscores/20250104_xkn2.xml?view=boxscore