Tigers fall 82-74 at No. 17-ranked Garden City

Slow starts to each half of Saturday's game at No. 17-ranked Garden City ended up being the downfall for the Cowley College men's basketball team as they suffered an 82-74 road defeat.

Garden City led 10-3 in the first two minutes of Saturday's contest, but Cowley did a good job of hanging around as they found themselves trailing by only five points (41-36) at the end of the first half.

However, the Tigers got off to another slow start coming out of halftime as the Broncbusters scored the first seven points of the second half to lead by 12 (48-36). Cowley would close within 49-46 following a layup by Clarence King, and eventually grabbed a 56-53 lead on a three-pointer by Xavier Valley with 12:23 remaining.

The lead would be short-lived as Garden City answered with a 9-0 run and never trailed again in the eight-point victory.

"We battled back several times and did not quit, but ultimately the slow starts to each half proved costly," Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson said.

Xavier Valley continued his strong play of late and led Cowley with 23 points in the defeat. King added 18 points, while Mekhi Cameron (14 points) and Kennedy Willis (10 points) also finished in double figures for the Tigers.

Cowley is now 14-12 overall and 10-10 in the Jayhawk Conference.

Garden City (20-6), winners of 12 of its past 13 games, remains in second place in the conference with a record of 14-6. The Broncbusters were led by Heru Bligen's 25 points, while Mohamed Diarra added 22 points and 13 rebounds.

"Garden City played with a sense of urgency and made timely plays when they needed to," Jackson said.

Cowley will remain on the road to face Colby Monday at 7:30 p.m. The Trojans are 14-10 overall and 9-9 in the Jayhawk Conference.

"Colby has the best front court in the conference. We will need to be way better at Colby than we were at Garden if we want to compete on the road," Jackson said. "This is a huge game for both teams."

Box score:

Cowley (74): Raishaun Brown 1-5 0-0 2, Mekhi Cameron 5-13 0-0 14, Clarence King 7-14 2-5 18, Xavier Valley 9-18 1-1 23, Trevion Alexander 0-2 0-0 0, Xavier Washington 2-4 0-0 4, Emmanuel Austin 0-0 1-2 1, Christian Williams 0-0 0-0 0, Kennedy Willis 5-9 0-1 10, KJ Spiller 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 30-67 4-9 74.

Garden City (82): Heru Bligen 7-13 11-12 25, Micah Octave 3-9 0-0 7, Tone Hunter 2-11 0-0 6, Marko Dosen 2-8 0-0 5, Mohamed Diarra 9-13 2-3 22, Rodney Lewis 0-0 0-0 0, Josh Nwankwo 5-14 2-4 15, Jyre McCloud 1-2 0-0 2, Mike Carson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 29-71 15-19 82.

Three-pointers: Cowley 10-26 (Valley 4-11, Cameron 4-6, King 2-4, Brown 0-3, Washington 0-1, Willis 0-1, Garden City 9-29 (Nwankwo 3-10, Hunter 2-6, Diarra 2-3, Dosen 1-5, Octave 1-4, Carson 0-1). Rebounds: Cowley 39 (Brown 12), Garden City 40 (Diarra 13). Assists: Cowley 22 (Brown 6), Garden City 23 (Hunter 8). Turnovers: Cowley 23, Garden City 14. Total fouls: Cowley 16, Garden City 12. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.