Tigers advance to play in Region semifinal with 87-69 win

With both teams riding five-game winning streaks entering Tuesday's contest, the second-seeded Cowley College men's basketball team (27-4) knocked off the seventh-seeded Northwest Kansas Tech Mavericks (16-16) 87-69 in the second round of the Region VI Tournament played Tuesday night inside W.S. Scott Auditorium.

Cowley advances to play the winner of the third-seeded Hutchinson(26-5) vs. Garden City (19-12) contest in the semifinals of the Region VI Tournament on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Hutchinson Sports Arena. The winner of Friday's game will play for the Region title on Saturday at 5.

On Tuesday, Cowley led by as many as 10 points (37-27) following a dunk by sophomore Corey Thomas. However, the Mavericks scored eight of the final 10 points in the half as the Tigers went into halftime with a 39-35 lead.

Freshman Shamarrie Hugie came off the bench to lead the Tigers with 12 first-half points, while Keyishon Miller led the Mavericks with 13.

The Tigers stormed out of the halftime locker room to stretch its lead to double figures in the first three minutes of the second half and led 64-46 following another dunk by Thomas. The Mavericks would never threaten again as Cowley would lead by as many as 23 points in the 87-69 win.

"I thought the difference in the game was our start to the second half," Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson said. "We have been successful when we have been attacking, and we did that in the second half."

Cowley sophomore Arzhante Dallas scored a game-high 22 points to go along with nine rebounds, five assists, and four steals.

"Arzhante is a competitor and always wants to win," Jackson said.

Hugie finished with 14 points, while Damare Smith added 12 points, and Thomas finished with eight points and 13 rebounds.

With his 17 points on Tuesday, sophomore Jeff Nwankwo moves into 20^th place for the most points scored (568) in a single season in Tiger men's basketball history.

Miller led the Mavericks with 21 points and 14 rebounds as they had their season come to an end.

Cowley will now focus on facing either third-seeded Hutchinson or sixth-seeded Garden City on Friday.

"We are 1-0 now in this tournament and hope to go 1-0 on Friday," Jackson said.

The winner of the tournament will earn an automatic bid to compete at the NJCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, March 24-30 in Hutchinson, KS.

The box score can be found at: https://kjccc.org/sports/mbkb/2023-24/boxscores/20240312_2cdj.xml?view=boxscore