Cowley Out Runs Trinity Valley
In a wild one, the only team averaging over one hundred points per game in NJCAA DI, the #8 seed Cowley College, KS, Tigers, started a basketball game and a track meet broke out inside the Hutchinson Sports Arena. Trinity Valley CC, TX, was the other team involved in the shootout, that eventually had Cowley cross the finish line way ahead of the Cardinals.
The game actually started out fairly slowly for the Tigers, who tickled the twine at a pace of 108 ppg entering the tournament. But it didn’t take long for either team to find their range in route to a 77-70 halftime lead for Cowley. That halftime score was more points than the final score in the Holmes CC/Vincennes contest, which finished with a 71-66 HCC victory.
As all games with the nations leading scorers, the game started with the firing of a starters pistol. Baskets were like a buy one get one as TVCC shot 63% to CC’s 56%, yet still found themselves down 8 at intermission. Explain that one to your team.
Trinity did take advantage of Cowley’s cold start, as both teams combined for 41 three point attempts in the first half. Amazingly each made over 50% on those threes. Trinity Valley built a 9 point lead just short of the halfway point of the first half, but once Cowley got there game legs, things changed in a hurry. Like they usually do with this team.
Dalen Ridgnal (6’6″ SO from Kansas City, MO), Cowley’s second leading scorer for the game with 24, explained his and some teammates slow start, “Me, I didn’t start out very good, and I was really, really nervous. I think we all were a little bit.”
The torrid pace that Cowley punishes there opponents with throughout the season, eventually wore down the Cardinals 57-37 after intermission to win going away, 134-107.
In their District Championship win over Hutchinson CC, Cowley posted a 116 in that nine point victory. In fact, there were only 7 of their 26 game so far this season in which they didn’t reach the century mark.
Cowley Head Coach Tommy DeSalme commented on his teams style, “we play fast and play for the threes. We don’t want anybody else’s threes to affect what we do, get out and run, and shoot threes. It’s really hard for teams to simulate our style to get ready to play us.”
When asked about his teams ability to adjust to others who don’t want to run with them, he replied, “We can adjust to a slower pace, we did three or four times this year, but we still want to push the pace and make them adjust.”
Trinity Valley ends their season at 23-3. Trevon Fuller (5’9″ SO from Lawton, OK) was team high with 25 points, all before halftime, personally keeping the Cardinals within striking distance. Five others had double figure scoring in the loss. Tuongthach Gathek was second in scoring with 19 and led the team with 8 rebounds. TVCC did dominate in the paint, out-pointing the winners 52-34, but it was long range attack which propelled CC, finishing 22-48 (46%).
Trinity also bested Cowley on fast break points 38-25, but the Tigers forced 29 Cardinals turnovers and held a 37-18 advantage on points off those miscues. There were 4 ties in the game and 9 lead changes.
Cowley moves on the play #1 seed Mineral Area College, Wednesday at 2:00. Those Cardinals beat Hutchinson earlier in the day. Tigers also had six in double digit point production, led by 6’1″ SO Mikel Henderson who deposited 33 through the cords, adding 4 assist. Ridgnal was 2nd leading scorer tallying 24 and posting a double-double by corralling 14 rebounds.
On a side note, the two teams combined to set a new tournament record for most points in a game by both teams with 241. The old record was 237 set in 1977 in a game between North Idaho College and Tallahassee CC.
Cowley came close but fell 3 points short of tying the record for most points by one team. That record is 137, and was also set in the 1977 tourney. North Greenville JC (SC) holds that record.
