Garden City uses school-record 19 three-pointers to end Lady Tigers’ season
With Garden City having three players combine for 19 three-pointers and 79 points, the No. 8-seed Broncbusters defeated the No. 9-seed Cowley College women’s basketball team 91-80 in the First Round of the District Plains Tournament held Saturday in Garden City, KS.
Cowley finishes with a 15-16 record. The Lady Tigers have won either 15 or 16 games in three of the past four seasons.
Saturday's game was a microcosm of Cowley's season as the Lady Tigers battled hard and gave themselves a chance to win, but were unable to make enough plays to come out victorious.
"We gave away too many close games this season," Cowley head coach Todd Clark said. "We had several games where we had chances and a few where we gave away leads late."
Garden City (17-13) advances to face top-seed Butler on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in El Dorado, KS.
On Saturday, Cowley got 13 first-quarter points from freshman Saliyah Henderson-Johnson to forge a 21-21 tie entering the second quarter.
Garden City's Sokhna Ndiaye, who finished with a game-high 36 points, went 4-of-5 from beyond the arc and scored 12 first-quarter points.
Cowley turned the ball over seven times in the second quarter, and the Broncbusters' Paula Fernandez hit four three-pointers as Garden City took a 43-32 lead into the halftime intermission.
Cowley would pull within 48-46 following a basket by Henderson-Johnson with 3:47 remaining in the third quarter, but Garden City would close the quarter on a 15-4 run to lead 63-50.
The Lady Tigers could get no closer than within eight points in the final quarter as Garden City held on for the 11-point win.
Henderson-Johnson began her Lady Tiger career by scoring 26 points against NOC-Tonkawa, and finished her freshman campaign by equaling her career-high of 26 points on 11-of-14 shooting from the floor. She finished the season averaging 8.9 points and 5.3 rebounds per contest.
Fellow freshman Aniyah Burney added 24 points and finished only 13 points outside of the top-20 single-season scoring performances in school history, averaging a team-best 15.8 points per game. Megan Simon added six points, seven rebounds, five assists, and three steals in the final game of her freshman season.
"I think we have a nice core to build around for next season," Clark said.
Sophomore Mallory Jackson added 13 points and five rebounds in her final game in a Cowley uniform. Jackson and Zuzanna Komor are the only sophomores on the squad.
Along with Ndiaye's 36 points, Elektra Mjoll added 22 points, and Paula Fernandez finished with 21 on 7-of-15 shooting from three-point range.
In what was an up-and-down season for the Lady Tigers, Clark never had to worry about support from the home fans.
"I want to thank all our wonderful supporters," Clark said. "We have such great and loyal fans."
The box score can be found at: https://cowleytigers.com/sports/wbkb/2025-26/boxscores/20260307_0aj5.xml?view=boxscore.