Lady Tiger basketball team opens with a pair of victories

Opening the season at home, the Cowley College women's basketball team rolled to a pair of wins on Friday and Saturday inside W.S. Scott Auditorium. The Lady Tigers began the season on Friday with a 110-43 victory over the Oklahoma Wesleyan JV before returning to the court on Saturday and taking down the Kansas Wesleyan University JV by a score of 86-58.

"We are still trying to figure things out, so playing these types of teams helps us get ready for conference play," Cowley head coach Todd Clark said.

On Friday, Cowley led Oklahoma Wesleyan by only four points (14-10) at the end of the first quarter. However, the Lady Tigers scored the first 16 points of the second quarter and went into halftime with a commanding 46-19 lead.

Sophomore Jamie Molina, also a member of the Lady Tiger softball team, made her first appearance for the Lady Tiger basketball team a memorable one as she buried four three-pointers in the second quarter and finished with a game-high 25 points.

"Jamie has been really active and been a nice addition for us," Clark said.

Cowley continued to pour it on in the second half as they out-scored the Lady Eagles 41-6 in the third quarter and led by as many as 70 points in the victory.

Cowley had six players score in double figures, and all 10 that played scored in the victory, while the Lady Tiger bench scored 58 points.

Freshman Rafa Bergonso had a solid debut, finishing with 17 points and five rebounds. Sophomore Georgia Knight also played well while scoring a career-high 15 points.

Cowley shot 51.2 percent from the floor and made 14-of-36 three-point attempts.

The Lady Tiger defense was just as impressive as they forced the Lady Eagles into 40 turnovers, which led to 53 points.

Trinity Garnatz led Oklahoma Wesleyan with nine points in the defeat.

Cowley returned to the floor less than 24 hours later and again held a slim lead of 17-15 over the Kansas Wesleyan JV after one-quarter of play.

Sophomore Jaiden Smith scored 14 second-quarter points to help Cowley lead 41-35 at the end of the first half. Smith scored all 21 of her points in the opening half as she went 5-of-10 from three-point range.

The Lady Coyotes scored the first four points of the second half to close within 41-39 before Cowley used a 14-0 run to pull away.

The Lady Tigers shot 65 percent from the floor in the third quarter to open a 68-43 lead and cruised to the 28-point win.

Molina came off the bench for a second straight game and finished with 14 points and nine rebounds in 18 minutes of action. Freshman Elysa Martinez added 16 points, five rebounds, five assists, and four steals, while sophomore point guard Destiny Yates finished with 14 points and four assists.

"Destiny is not flashy, but she runs our stuff and is a great leader on the court," Clark said.

Cowley will remain home to face the Northern-Oklahoma College-Tonkawa Mavericks on Thursday at 7 p.m.

"I am pleased with what we are doing so far," Clark said. "Of course, we still have things to improve, but we are getting better. NOC is always pretty good, so we look forward to the game and hope to get a little bit better."