Poor shooting night leads to Lady Tigers 65-56 home loss

Shooting only 25 percent from the floor, the Cowley College women's basketball team suffered a 65-56 home loss against Butler Community College on Saturday inside W.S. Scott Auditorium.

The loss drops Cowley (11-6) into a three-way tie for seventh place in the Jayhawk Conference with a record of 6-6. Butler (13-4) moves into fourth place in the conference with a record of 8-4.

On Saturday, Cowley made only 1-of-10 three-point attempts and trailed 17-13 at the end of the first quarter. The Grizzlies' lead would grow to 41-30 at the end of the first half.

Butler scored the first four points of the second half as its lead grew to 15 points (45-30). The Grizzlies held a decisive size advantage, which forced Cowley to attempt 48 three-pointers while only taking 20 shots inside the arc. The Lady Tigers made only 10-of-48 three-point attempts as Butler out-shot Cowley 43 percent to 25 percent from the floor. The Grizzlies also out-rebounded the Lady Tigers 45-30.

Still, Cowley trailed just 55-48 heading into the final quarter of play.

Butler opened the fourth quarter by scoring six straight points and held Cowley to only eight points in the final period as they went on to the nine-point road win.

Elysa Martinez battled foul trouble while leading Cowley with 20 points in only 24 minutes of action. Jaiden Smith added 11 points, and Alexcia Murphy came off the bench to finish with six points and eight rebounds in 15 minutes of action. However, the rest of the team combined for only 19 points on 6-of-38 shooting.

Kenzie Galliart led four Grizzlies in double figures with 14 points and seven rebounds. Lucia Lara added 11 points and 10 boards as Butler evened its road record at 3-3.  

Cowley will host Pratt on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. The Beavers (6-11) limp into the contest with a conference record of 1-11 and have been out-scored by an average of 29 points per game during its five-game losing skid.