Tigers’ furious rally comes up short in 89-83 region semifinal loss to Hutchinson

Facing the third-seeded Hutchinson Community College Blue Dragons for the third time this season and the second time on Hutchinson's home floor, the second-seeded Cowley College men's basketball team nearly pulled off a miraculous comeback before suffering an 89-83 loss in the semifinals of the Region VI Tournament played Friday at the Hutchinson Sports Arena.

Hutchinson (27-5) advances to face top-seeded and No. 1-ranked Barton Community College (31-1) in the Region VI Championship game on Saturday at 5 p.m. in the Hutchinson Sports Arena. Barton defeated Butler 79-76 to advance to the title game.

After splitting two games in the regular season, the No. 11-ranked Cowley Tigers trailed by double digits at halftime and by as many as 19 in the second half before nearly clawing all the way back.

The Tigers held a slim 10-9 lead after the first media timeout but trailed 16-12 following a dunk by Kernan Bundy with 12:37 left in the first half. A three-pointer by Landon Wagler increased the Blue Dragons' lead to 19-12.

Hutchinson's Russell Branch would convert a four-point play, increasing the Dragons lead to 25-16 with just over eight minutes remaining in the opening half. The Hutchinson lead would grow to 33-18 on another basket by Bundy.

Hutchinson would lead by as many as 17 points (38-21) after a three-pointer by Kamryn Thomas and went into halftime with a 42-27 lead. The Blue Dragons out-shot Cowley 53.3 percent to 25.8 percent over the first 20 minutes of play.

"I thought we had some early game jitters and were overly ready to play," Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson said.

Cowley would open the second half with back-to-back three-pointers from Jeff Nwankwo and Arzhonte Dallas to pull within 42-33. However, Hutchinson answered by scoring seven straight points to build its lead back to 49-33.

The Tigers would not go away, pulling within 58-49 on a basket by Corey Thomas with 11:25 remaining. But, once again, Hutchinson had an answer and would have its lead balloon to 78-59 with only 5:50 left before Cowley used a 17-4 run to close within 82-76 with 1:56 remaining.

A three-pointer by freshman Marcus Zeigler cut the Tigers' deficit to four (85-81) with 32.5 seconds left. J.P. Ricks then made 1-of-2 from the line before Nwankwo scored inside to make it a one-possession game (86-83) with 19.3 seconds remaining.

Ricks would again make 1-of-2 from the line on the ensuing possession to put Hutchinson up four (87-83) before Zeigler missed a three-point attempt on the other end. Kamryn Thomas made a pair of free throws in the final seconds to close out the six-point win.

"We still had a chance at the end; it just did not happen," Jackson said. "Credit to Hutch, they came ready to play and made shots."

Tommy DeSalme, the all-time winningest coach in the history of the Cowley College men's basketball program, improved to 3-2 against his former school since taking over as head coach at Hutchinson.

Nwankwo led Cowley with 27 points, while Thomas added 17 points and 14 rebounds.

Kamryn Thomas led Hutchinson with 23 points and 13 rebounds.

Cowley (27-5) will anxiously await to hear their name called during the NJCAA Division I National Men's Basketball Tournament selection show on Sunday.

"We have had some big wins against ranked teams, and our body of work shows we are definitely in the conversation," Jackson said. "We are Barton's only loss, while we gave Hutch one of their few losses and swept nationally ranked Butler. Our strength of schedule was definitely good enough."

The box score can be found at https://kjccc.org/sports/mbkb/2023-24/boxscores/20240315_0mfm.xml?view=boxscore