Jones’ late basket lifts the Tigers into the Region VI title game

Going down to the final second and then some, the top-seed Cowley College Tigers outlasted the fifth-seed Butler Community College Grizzlies by a score of 58-54 in the semifinals of the Region VI Men's Basketball Tournament held Friday afternoon inside Fort Hays State University in Hays, KS.

Sophomore transfer Emarquis Jones broke a 54-54 tie with a steal and the go-ahead layup with 16 seconds left, and Cowley finished it off at the line with a pair of free throws from Marcus Zeigler with one-second remaining. The Tigers out-scored Butler 10-3 in the final minute-plus to rally for the 58-54 win.

"The last minute and a half is a blur," Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson said. "Fortunately, we have good defensive playmakers and turned the pressure up on Butler. This sophomore group has playoff experience, and I think it showed."

Cowley advances to face the winner of the second-seed Coffeyville (23-8) and third-seed Barton (24-7) contest in the Region VI title game scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday. The Tigers improve to 28-4, and Butler finishes its season with a record of 22-11.

With both Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson and Butler head coach Eric Nitsche being former assistant coaches to Tommy DeSalme, the all-time winningest coach in the program's history, needless to say, the coaches know each other very well.

The team's split the two games in the regular season.

"Coach Eric does a fantastic job with his game plan but our guys just found a way to push through when it mattered," Jackson said.

On Friday, Cowley played stifling defense to open the game and led 15-9 following an emphatic dunk by Avanti Nichols with 12:30 remaining in the first half. The Tigers' lead would grow to 20-12 on a three-pointer by Emarquis Jones.

With sophomores Shamarrie Hugie and Marcus Zeigler combining for 22 first-half points, the Tigers would go into halftime with a 33-26 lead.

After finishing with 18 points and 19 rebounds in a 72-69 win over Cowley on March 5 in El Dorado, Butler big man Emeka Oporum picked up his second foul with 5:58 remaining in the first half and was limited to two points but still managed to pull down 11 boards in the first 20 minutes of play.

Cowley out-shot Butler 40 percent to 29.4 percent in the first half.  

Oporum would be whistled for his third foul on the opening possession of the second half, yet the Grizzlies clawed within 40-39 on a basket by Russell Branch and tied the game at 41-41 on a basket by Devonte Reed.

A three-pointer by Branch on the Grizzlies' next possession gave Butler its first lead of the game at 44-43 with 10:55 left to play.

After another tie and three lead changes, Butler would lead 51-48 with less than six minutes remaining.

Trailing 54-51, Cowley got the ball back after a turnover by Oporum with 1:18 left in regulation. A basket by Zeigler pulled the Tigers within 54-53, and Marcus Whitlock stole the ball away from Butler during the ensuing possession and was fouled with 31.1 seconds left. Whitlock made the first free throw to tie the game before Butler rebounded the miss of the second shot and called timeout with 29.4 seconds remaining.

Tiger sophomore Emarquis Jones then stole the ball away from Butler's Josiah Kirkwood and sailed in for the go-ahead layup with 16 seconds showing on the clock.

"That is E-WEE's (Emarquis Jones) strength is deflections, steals, and blocks," Jackson said.

Attempting to win the game in regulation, Butler's Josiah Kirkwood launched a three-pointer that was off the mark as the final buzzer sounded. However, the game was not over yet as the officials went to the scorer's table to see if there was a potential goaltending on the Tigers on the final shot.

The officials ruled there was no goaltending on the play, but they put 1.9 seconds back on the clock. Forced to foul, Butler sent Zeigler to the line, where he buried both shots to complete the 58-54 victory.

Zeigler finished with a game-high 20 points, while Hugie added 16 points and eight rebounds.

"I felt like my team knew that I had the flow early on, and the shots were coming to me," Zeigler said.

Oporum would foul out with 15 rebounds but only four points.

"He was our number one focus," Jackson said.

In the roughly 100 years of basketball being played at Cowley College, the Tigers have won the Region VI Tournament title on only four occasions. A victory on Saturday would be a fifth region title in the program's history and the first for Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson.

"It will be either defending national champ (Barton) or old Jayhawk East rival Coffeyville, so it will be a slugfest no matter how you look at it," Jackson said. "But that is what you want. You want to play the best because those are the kind of teams you will see at the national tournament."

Zeigler said the Tigers will be ready come game time on Saturday.

"We need to play together as a team and play defense from the start," Zeigler said. "If we do that, we will have a chance to win."

Box score:

Butler (54): Russell Branch 5-10 2-4 14, Bubba Leavell 1-6 0-0 3, Kaeson Fisher-Brown 0-3 1-3 1, AJ Pierre-Jerome 0-3 2-2 2, Emeka Oporum 2-3 0-2 4, Josiah Kirkwood 3-11 0-0 8, Cozy Muehler 0-2 0-0, Devin Kerr 4-8 0-0 8, Rashad McCormick 1-3 3-4 5, Devonte Reed 4-9 1-3 9. Totals: 20-58 9-18 54.

Cowley (58): Shamarrie Hugie 6-11 3-4 16, Marcus Zeigler 6-15 6-7 20, Emarquis Jones 2-6 1-2 6, Dallas Whitney 2-7 2-5 7, Marcus Whitlock Jr. 1-5 1-2 4, Avante Nichols 2-4 0-1 4, CJ Majors 0-6 0-0 0, Kyden Thompson 1-1 0-0 2. Totals: 20-55 13-21 58.

Three-pointers: Butler 5-23 (Branch 2-5, Kirkwood 2-5, Leavell 1-3, Fisher-Brown 0-3, Muehler 0-2, Kerr 0-2, McCormick 0-2, Reed 0-1), Cowley 5-21 (Zeigler 2-4, Hugie 1-6, Whitney 1-3, Jones 1-2, Majors 0-3, Whitlock 0-2, Nichols 0-1). Rebounds: Butler 50 (Oporum 15), Cowley 34 (Hugie 8). Assists: Butler 9 (four players with 2), Cowley 8 (Whitney 2). Turnovers: Butler 20, Cowley 11. Total fouls: Butler 19, Cowley 14. Fouled out: Oporum. Technicals: none.