Balanced effort leads No. 25-ranked Tigers to a pair of season-opening wins

Opening the season with a pair of home games, the No. 25-ranked Cowley College men's basketball team got things started with a pair of wins. The Tigers began play on Friday with a dominating 84-39 victory over Labette Community College before wrapping up the weekend with a 96-76 win over Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa.

On Friday, Cowley never trailed and raced out to a 17-3 lead over Labette. The Tigers' lead would grow to 27-7 following a three-pointer from redshirt freshman Marcus Whitlock Jr. before the Cardinals responded with a 12-2 run to cut Cowley's lead to 29-19.

Cowley would regain its rhythm and scored seven of the final nine points of the opening half to take a 36-21 halftime lead.

The Tigers would go on to score the first nine points of the second half and out-scored Labette 48-18 over the final 20 minutes of play.

"My challenge in the second half was to play fast," Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson said.

Sophomore Leslie Owens led Cowley with 16 points and went 10-of-10 from the free-throw line. The Tigers, as a team, made 26-of-29 free throw attempts.

Fellow sophomores Marcus Zeigler and Shamarrie Hugie added 12 points apiece.

Labette turned the ball over 27 times in the defeat and was led by Demarco Davis' seven points.

Returning to the court to host Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa on Sunday, the first half featured seven ties and five lead changes before the Tigers went into halftime with a 43-39 lead.

Owens and Hugie combined for 29 of Cowley's 43 first-half points as both teams shot over 50 percent from the floor.

"Our sophomores carried us early until we ended up getting the lead," Jackson said.

Leading 65-59 with eight minutes remaining, the Tigers would score 14 straight points to lead 79-59 following a three-point play by Zeigler and went on to the 20-point win.

"I am proud of the overall effort of our team, especially in the second half," Jackson said.

Hugie led five Tigers in double figures with a career-high 26 points and 11 rebounds, while Owens finished with 21 points and six boards. Freshman Winston Allen also played well while scoring all 15 of his points in the second half.

"I challenged Winston Allen to leave it all out on the floor, and I thought he was the difference in the game in the second half when we needed it," Jackson said.

NOC-Tonkawa (0-2) shot only 32 percent in the second half and was led by Jace Breath's 21 points.

Cowley will host Allen Community College on Friday at 7:30 p.m. before playing host to No. 14-ranked Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College on Saturday at 4 p.m.

"Allen has eight returning players, and NEO is nationally ranked, so I am looking forward to this Classic," Jackson said. "We are trying to find our identity and have got to keep developing our bench."