High Powered Cowley Upsets No. 1 Seed Mineral Area
In the first quarterfinal match-up on Thursday, No. 1 seed Mineral Area College was going to be challenged by the leading scoring team in the nation, the Cowley College Tigers. Cowley averaging 108 ppg, only scoring below the century mark 7 of their previous 26 games, were there to challenge the undefeated Cardinals, winners of 24 straight games.
Would MAC’s streak continue? Would Cowley get shut down by the Cardinals, continuous, get in your grill pressure? Would Cowley find a different way to win than by outscoring their opponents?
It took 40 minutes to decide, and also to answer all of those questions. But in the end, Cowley did not reach their season scoring average. MAC tried to play two complete halves of high octane defense, and eventually Cowley DID find a different way to win in a wild one.
The final score was 105-101, as Cowley won the second half 62-42. Cowley was held short of their season average, so they did find a different way to win. Coming from behind to win after trailing by 25 in the second half.
Mineral Area’s remarkable undefeated season came to an end. Cowley becomes the first entry into the final four. They will meet the winner of today’s second game between Coffeyville CC (KS), the No. 10 seed and at-large entry from the Plains District, and Northern Oklahoma Tonkawa, the South Central District Champion.
After trailing 61-43 at halftime, the Tigers struggled to resemble the team that put them in the position they were in, the quarterfinals at Hutch. According to Head Coach Tommy DeSalme, “We weren’t ourselves, Too much dribbling. I told them at half, we may lose but we’re not going to lose playing like this.”
At a forty minute continuous fast break pace, there are going to be a lot of turnovers. But CC had 14 at the half, and that was unacceptable to their coach.
Another factor largely responsible for Mineral Area’s 18 point margin at the break, was their torrid shooting from the field. The Cardinals blistered the nets on 23 of 35 attempts (66%) and nailed 5 of their 9 three pointers.
Mineral Area didn’t appear to be complacent with the large halftime lead, they come out of the gates in the second increasing command over Cowley with a 7-0 run putting them up 25, 70-45. That was the Cards largest lead of the game.
Cowley was able to reduce the disadvantage to twenty on a Dalen Ridgnal jumper with 14:41 left. However, it looked like Mineral Area had weathered the storm (remember that phrase). Over the next the 8 minutes the lead fluctuated between 10-16. Until…the Tigers Cevin Clark hit a three with 6 minutes left to get them within 8, at 93-85.
The heat was on. Mineral Area started encountering turnover problems. Many times they had major difficulty just getting the ball in-bounded. After only committing 9 turnovers in the first half, MAC had 18 miscues for a game total of 27.
That alone was a determining stat leading to the Cardinals demise. They still shot well for the game (60%) but couldn’t avoid second half ball control issues.
Meanwhile, Cowley just kept doing what they do, pushing the pace and firing threes. Overall the Tigers launched 40 treys, connecting on 17 for 43%. For the game, Mineral had more two point FGs, but only made five of their 15 shots from outside the arc, but 0 for 8 in the second half.
CC’s Cevin Clark, who was 5 of eleven from three point land, finished with 15. He was one of 5 Tigers with 10+ points. When asked about his team’s ability to look at the scoreboard down 25, possibly seventeen minutes from the end of their season, and still believe they could win, Clark replied, “We just have to weather the storm, put up the umbrella, wait for them (the other team) to stop hitting their shots. We’ve done it all year.”
Others in double figs for the Tigers were Ridgnall, with team high 26, Dalen also had a DD nabbing 13 boards. Moun’tae Edmundson netted 23 and Mikel Henderson found his way to 22 with seven assist. Clarence King put in 10.
Mineral Area (24-1) had five in double figures lead by game high 27 from Kevin Stone (9-14 FG). Malevy Leon was one rebound short of a doub-doub with 9 to go along with 19 points. Terrion Murdox, the team’s starting PG was tied game high with 7 assist before leaving the game with injury issuses
