Broncbusters earn third straight win; take down Cowley in Ark City

Arkansas City, KS-Welcome back Boston Harker. 

The freshman guard poured in a season-high 18 points following a two-game absence, Buru Naivalurua added 17 points and five boards, and No. 24 Garden City beat Cowley, 65-56 Wednesday night at William Scott Gymnasium. It's the Broncbusters first three-game winning streak since Nov., improving to 18-7 overall and 13-7 in conference play. More significantly with Barton's win over Butler, the Broncbusters pulled within a half game of the Grizzlies for third place.  

"Our guys just kept coming tonight," Head Coach, Rusty Elmore said. "Boston was fantastic. I'm so proud of how these guys didn't put their heads down. It wasn't pretty, but we made the plays that we had to make."

Jaborri McGhee scored 16 points in 36 minutes before exiting with a lower leg injury with 37 seconds remaining. David Elliott grabbed eight rebounds. 

"We ask a lot of these guys, and they just keep battling through things," Elmore said. "We are going to enjoy this one."

For Elmore, it was his first career coaching victory in Arkansas City having lost his previous three while serving as Colby's head coach. 

"It's just a tough place to play, and they're a really good team that is really well coached," Elmore added. 

The Broncbuster defense was on full display again, holding the Tigers to just 35 percent shooting and 6-of-24 on 3s. More impressive was the fact that Cowley missed 28 of its first 35 shots from the field as Garden City held its third straight opponent under 40 percent.

"Our defense continues to get better," Elmore explained. 

Garden City overwhelmed the Tigers in the first half, blitzing them with a 12-0 run midway through the period. McGhee nailed back-to-back jumpers including a 3-pointer from the top of the key, Naivalurua drained his only long ball of the night, and Elliott sprinted past Mooch Austin for a layup, giving the Broncbusters their largest lead of the game, 21-11 with 8:51 remaining. During that same stretch, Garden City held Cowley scoreless for almost six minutes. 

"We found a rhythm, and we executed really well for portions of that first half," Elmore said. 

But Garden City managed just one field goal over the final seven minutes of the half (DaJion Humphrey's left-wing triple with four minutes remaining), Mekhi Cameron swished a 32-foot bomb at the buzzer, and the Broncbusters once double-digit lead was down to four at the break.  

Cowley eventually took the lead three minutes into the second half on Xavier Washington's driving layup. Moments later, Cameron sank two free throws, and Cowley was up 29-26. But Naivalurua quickly answered with a two-footer inside and a right-handed jam. That was followed up by Harker's tough drive and finish that resulted in a three-point play. McGhee connected on a rainbow jumper from just right of the foul line before powering home a dunk, and the Broncbusters had a 46-41 advantage with 7:14 to go. 

"Give our guys credit because we didn't play great in the second half," Elmore said. "We just found a way."

The problem for the first-year coach was that Cowley wouldn't go away. And when Jeff Nwankwo, the brother of former Broncbuster Josh Nwankwo skied over Humphrey for an emphatic jam that brought the crowd to its feet, the Tigers were back to within three with 3:19 to play. 

That's as close as the home team got the rest of the way. 

Harker, who missed the previous two games with a neck injury, hit a huge 3 from the left wing; then dropped in four free throws down the stretch as the Broncbusters improved to 8-3 on the road. 

Garden City shot 44 percent and was 17-of-20 at the line. They utilized only a seven-man rotation. 

Washington scored 14 points for Cowley, which lost its second straight game. Corey Thomas and Mekhi Cameron each had 12.