Tigers knock off Barton 102-97, improve to 2-1 in Jayhawk East

Making a season-high 32 free-throw attempts, the Cowley College men's basketball team out-scored Barton Community College by 12 points at the charity stripe in a 102-97 win Wednesday night inside W.S. Scott Auditorium.

Cowley improves its record to 2-3 overall and 2-1 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division, while Barton falls to 2-2 overall and 1-2 in the Jayhawk West.

The first half featured a game of runs as Barton led 23-12 before Cowley rallied to lead 37-32 following a dunk by Shemarri Allen. With the score tied 43-43, Cowley closed the first half on a 9-0 run to lead 52-43.

"That spurt at the end of the first half leads me to believe we are getting closer to game shape," Cowley head coach Tommy DeSalme said. "Our guards are still rusty shooting the ball, but our pace was better."

The Tigers' lead would grow to 74-64 after back-to-back three-pointers by sophomores Moun'tae Edmundson and Mike'l Henderson. However, Barton would use a 14-5 run to pull within 79-78 following a basket by Asanti Price with 8:30 remaining.

That would be as close as the Cougars would get as Cowley's lead grew back to double digits less than two minutes later and the Tigers went 11-of-14 from the foul line down the stretch as they held on for the five-point win.

Barton out-shot the Tigers from the floor 50.7 percent to 39.2 percent, but Cowley out-scored the Cougars by 12 at the free-throw line as they went 32-of-46 from the charity stripe.

"We showed some toughness needed to win in this league," DeSalme said.

Dalen Ridgnal continues to be a double-double machine as he led the Tigers with 26 points and 17 rebounds. Ridgnal went 12-of-14 from the free-throw line and helped Cowley hold on for the victory.

"If he keeps getting better at doing the things we ask of him, from rim to rim, he will continue to grow as a player," DeSalme said.

Sophomore Shemarri Allen had his best game of the season, finishing with 17 points and four rebounds.

"Shemarri willed us to some of those runs even though he is still limited in his minutes," DeSalme said.

Jacquez Yow also played well as he came off the bench to finish with 16 points and eight rebounds, while Raishaun Brown added 12 points on 3-of-4 shooting from three-point range.

"Jacquez was dominant the first six or seven minutes of the game," DeSalme said. "That is the kind of player he has been working hard to become. And, I thought Raishaun kept us in the game by hitting some big shots."

Sophomore guards Cevin Clark and Moun'tae Edmundson also made their presence felt in the win, with Clark finishing with 13 points and Edmundson grabbing seven rebounds despite being listed at only 5'10".

"Moun'tae and Cevin do a lot of things for us that don't show up in the stats," DeSalme said.

DeSean Munson led Barton with 29 points and 11 rebounds on 12-of-15 shooting from the floor.

Cowley will now prepare to play host to Northwest Kansas Tech in the team's Hall of Fame game Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The KJCCC will allow fans to make up 25 percent of the capacity of W.S. Scott Auditorium. The Mavericks are currently 0-2 on the season with both losses coming by double digits against conference foes.

"We need to continue to improve and hope to have a breakout game offensively," DeSalme said. "It will great for the kids to have (limited) fans in attendance."

Box score:

Barton (97): DeSean Munson 12-15 5-10 29, Jaheim Holden 7-15 3-6 17, Justin Harmon 3-5 4-6 10, Asanti Price 5-12 4-6 17, Will Lapoole 5-10 0-2 12, Shawn Warrior 2-6 1-1 5, Joe Jones 1-4 0-1 2, Jarin Koehler 0-1 2-2 2, Thomas King 0-1 1-2 1, Cameron Brooks-Harris 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 36-71 20-36 97.

Cowley (102): Mike'l Henderson 3-12 1-2 9, Cevin Clark 3-8 5-6 13, Dalen Ridgnal 7-15 12-14 26, Shemarri Allen 4-7 9-14 17, Biar Garang 0-1 0-0 0, Kobe Campbell 0-2 0-0 0, Clarence King 0-0 0-0 0, Moun'tae Edmundson 1-9 0-0 3, Raishaun Brown 4-8 1-3 12, Tarese Morse 1-3 0-0 2, Jacquez Yow 6-12 4-7 16, Josiah Harris 2-2 0-0 4, Jayden McCray 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 31-79 32-46 102.

Three-pointers: Barton 5-19 (Price 3-6, Lapoole 2-4, Holden 0-4, King 0-1, Brooks-Harris 0-1, Warrior 0-1, Jones 0-1, Koehler 0-1), Cowley 8-28 (Brown 3-4, Henderson 2-7, Clark 2-4, Edmundson 1-5, Ridgnal 0-3, Campbell 0-2, Yow 0-2, Garang 0-1). Rebounds: Barton 46 (Munson 11), Cowley 53 (Ridgnal 17). Assists: Barton 10 (Harmon 5), Cowley 13 (Henderson 4). Turnovers: Barton 27, Cowley 23. Total fouls: Barton 33, Cowley 26. Fouled out: Harmon, Price, Brooks-Harris, Allen. Technicals: Brooks-Harris, Allen, Morse.