Late rally lifts Lady Tigers to 74-70 road win

Trailing at Garden City by 10 points with less than four minutes remaining on Saturday, the Cowley College women's basketball team out-scored the Lady Broncbusters 23-9 to win 74-70.

Winners of five of its past six games, Cowley (18-9) is now 13-9 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. Garden City (11-15) has lost four games in a row to fall to 8-13 in the conference.

On Saturday, Cowley led 15-13 at the end of the first quarter and 33-29 at the end of the first half.

An 18-10 third quarter helped Garden City go in front 47-43, and the Broncbusters' lead would grow to 61-51 following a pair of free throws by Jolie Mantz with 3:33 left to play. However, Cowley turned up the defensive pressure and used an 18-4 run to lead 69-65 with 34 seconds remaining.

Garden City had a chance to tie the game when Bruna Costa Da Silva made a 13-foot jumper while Moultrie was fouled as the ball was in the air. But Moultrie made only 1-of-2 free throws, and Cowley's Elysa Martinez made five free throws over the final 21 seconds to help preserve the win.

"I am proud of how we fought back," Cowley head coach Todd Clark said. "It looked bleak there for a bit, so it was nice to be able to pull that one off."

Martinez went 10-of-11 from the foul line and led all scorers with 24 points. Sophomore Hattie Pyle battled, who battled foul trouble for the first three quarters of the game, scored 10 of her 12 points in the final period.

Destiny Yates added 10 points, and freshman Rafa Bergonso scored all eight of her points in the second quarter.

Garden City shot 50 percent from the floor (27-of-54) and 86.7 percent from the free-throw line (13-of-15), but Cowley turned 27 Broncbuster turnovers into 29 points.

"We made them uncomfortable on offense," Clark said.

Moultrie led five Garden City players in double figures with 23 points and 13 rebounds.

Cowley will return home to face Cloud County in the team's Homecoming game on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. The T-Birds are 16-10 overall and 11-10 in the conference.

"Cloud has got a talented group," Clark said. "This is another huge game for us. We need to try to find a way to win."

Box score:

Cowley (74): Jaiden Smith 3-10 0-0 7, Destiny Yates 3-8 3-5 10, Hattie Pyle 4-8 4-4 12, Elysa Martinez 6-15 10-11 24, Georgia Knight 0-2 0-0 0, Keturah Stewart 1-6 4-4 7, Mallory Jackson 2-6 2-2 6, Rafa Bergonso 3-3 0-0 8. Totals: 22-58 23-26 74.

Garden (70): Ana Ramos Pires 4-10 2-2 10, Bruna Costa Da Silva 6-10 0-0 12, Antonicia Moultrie 9-11 5-6 23, Priscilla Rose Wemba 0-2 0-0 0, Jolie Mantz 3-13 2-2 10, Sidney Scruggs 0-0 0-0 0, Hadiya Kennedy 4-7 2-2 11, Ajong Lual 1-1 2-3 4. Totals: 27-54 13-15 70.

Three-pointers: Cowley 7-21 (Martinez 2-5, Bergonso 2-2, Smith 1-8, Yates 1-3, Stewart 1-2, Knight 0-1), Garden 3-16 (Mantz 2-10, Kennerly 1-1, Da Silva 0-4, Moultrie 0-1). Rebounds: Cowley 17 (Jackson 5), Garden 34 (Moultrie 13). Assists: Cowley 14 (Martinez 4), Garden 21 (Da Silva 8). Turnovers: Cowley 12, Garden City 27. Total fouls: Cowley 22, Garden 25. Fouled out: Pires, Mantz, Kennerly. Technicals: Stewart, Da Silva.