Lady Tigers can't hold the lead, fall 76-61 at Garden City

In what has been a recurring theme for the Cowley College women's basketball team, the Lady Tigers battled hard to take a fourth-quarter lead but were unable to finish off the win while losing 76-61 Wednesday night in Garden City.

The loss marked the fifth time this season Cowley has had the lead entering the fourth quarter but was unable to come away with the victory. In fact, the first time these two teams met on December 2 in Ark City, Garden City rallied from 16 points down in the final five minutes to win.

"Really, this was just a repeat of our game here," Cowley head coach Todd Clark said. "We took the lead late and had a bad call go against us, from which we never recovered."

The Lady Broncbusters are now 12-10 overall and 7-10 in the Jayhawk Conference. Cowley has dropped five games in a row to fall under .500 for the first time this season, with a record of 11-12 overall and 5-12 in the conference.

Wednesday's game was close for three quarters, with Cowley trailing 17-13 after one-quarter of play and 37-35 at the end of the first half. Sophomore Ndack Mbengue scored 14 first-quarter points to keep Cowley within striking distance.

The Lady Tigers would shoot 70 percent in the third quarter to take a 53-51 lead into the final quarter. Unfortunately, Cowley made only 2-of-15 shots from the floor in the fourth quarter and was out-scored 25-8.

"When you shoot 13 percent in the fourth quarter and have 25 turnovers in the game, it is hard to win, especially on the road," Clark said.

After shooting only 12-of-53 from the floor over the previous four games, Lady Tiger freshman Hattie Pyle showed signs of breaking out of her shooting slump by going 6-of-14 from the floor and 7-of-10 from the foul line to lead all scorers with 21 points and nine assists.

Mbengue went 0-for-3 from the floor and did not score in the second half, as she finished with 14 points and 15 rebounds.

Garden City shot 50.9 percent from the floor and was led by Sariah Conley and Stevi Yancy, scoring 16 points apiece.

Cowley, which is 9-4 at home, will host No. 11-ranked Dodge City on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Conquistadors (20-3) are second in the conference with a record of 13-3. 

Box score:

Cowley (61): Destiny Yates 3-5 2-2 8, Ndack Mbengue 6-12 2-3 14, Anna Przyszlak 5-17 1-2 11, Hattie Pyle 6-14 7-10 21, Jaiden Smith 1-4 0-0 3, Zuzanna Komor 1-3 2-2 4, Josephine Vourliotis 0-0 0-0 0, Georgia Knight 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 22-55 14-19 61.

Garden City (76): Sariah Conley 6-9 0-0 16, Ana Ramos Pires 7-10 0-0 14, Sierra Driessen 4-12 5-6 13, Antonicia Moultrie 4-5 0-0 8, Stevi Yancy 5-13 4-4 16, Maya Nieto 3-8 0-0 9. Totals: 29-57 9-10 76.

Three-pointers: Cowley 3-12 (Pyle 2-4, Smith 1-3, Przyszlak 0-3, Yates 0-1, Komor 0-1), Garden 9-23 (Conley 4-5, Nieto 3-7, Yancy 2-8, Driessen 0-3). Rebounds: Cowley 36 (Mbengue 15), Garden 18 (Moultrie 8). Assists: Cowley 16 (Pyle 9), Garden 24 (Conley, Driessen 8). Turnovers: Cowley 25, Garden 15. Total fouls: Cowley 16, Garden 15. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.