Lady Tigers begin the new year with a 62-47 win over Colby

Playing its first game since December 9, the Cowley College women's basketball team forced Colby Community College into 25 turnovers in a 62-47 home win Wednesday inside W.S. Scott Auditorium.

The victory snapped a six-game losing streak for the Lady Tigers and was Cowley's first win since November 18. Cowley is now 8-6 overall and 2-6 in the Jayhawk Conference, while Colby falls to 4-8 overall and 0-7 in the conference.

Wednesday's contest pitted Cowley head coach Todd Clark against his former mentor Darin Spence, who coached at Cowley from 1998-2003 and is in the Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame. Clark served as Spence's assistant from 1997-2000 as the pair guided the Lady Tigers to three straight conference championships and a record of 91-9.

Spence was finding the same success hard to come by in year one in charge at Colby as his Trojans committed 10 first-quarter turnovers and trailed 18-6 after one-quarter of play.

The Trojans would commit 19 turnovers in the opening half yet trailed only 28-24 thanks to Cowley shooting only 32.4 percent from the floor.

Sophomore post player Anna Przyszlak scored 10 of her 16 points in the opening half to lead the Lady Tigers.

Cowley's lead would grow to 49-37 after three quarters of play.

Holding onto a 56-47 lead, Cowley did not allow Colby to score over the final four minutes as they went onto the 15-point win.

Freshman Jaiden Smith led Cowley with 17 points, while freshmen Hattie Pyle and Zuzanna Komor added 12 points and seven rebounds and eight points and seven boards, respectively.

Sofia Lopez led Colby with 16 points but committed nine turnovers.

The Lady Tigers will attempt to make it two victories in a row when they play at Independence on Saturday at 4 p.m. The Lady Pirates are 8-5 overall and 2-5 in the conference.