Panthers come up short in defensive battle with Cowley

Brian McDowell
Sports Editor

ARKANSAS CITY — It is uncharacteristic for the high-flying, quick-scoring NCCC men's basketball team to be involved in a sluggish defensive battle, but that is exactly what awaited the Panthers in their Saturday night visit to Cowley County. Even though the match-up was radically different than the type that this team is used to, the Panthers adjusted their game, and managed to make the game competitive until the final buzzer. Unfortunately for the Panthers, they came up short and fell 62-58.

“We knew that Cowley would guard us, so that's why we did some good things differently offensively so that we could get some buckets,” Neosho County Coach Jeremy Coombs said. “They just did a good job guarding. The good news is that we guarded, and I was very proud of that with our team and I couldn't have asked them to do anything else.”

The two teams only scored a combined six points in the game's first five minutes. The Panthers then went on a 11-5 run midway through the first half that allowed them to go into halftime with a 27-23 lead.

The Panthers maintained a lead until about five minutes into the second half, until Cowley County went on a 7-0 run that put the Tigers back in the driver's seat. A late game surge by Neosho County standout Brison White and the outside shooting skills of players like Thomas Drew kept the Panthers in the tight-knit ballgame as the two teams traded leads throughout the rest of the game.

White put in a layup with 29 seconds to go, and the Panthers found themselves down by two. However, a few seconds later, a three-point attempt by Drew was knocked out of bounds, seemingly, several courtside observers thought, by one of the Tigers. The officials, however, handed the ball to Cowley County, and they won the game by four points on two last second free throws.

White led the Panthers in scoring with 15. Drew had 10 points and Raymond Jeter was also a major offensive force for the Panthers in this conference showdown with 10 points.

“He's really come on,” Coombs said. “He is the freshman that we gave until Christmas to grow up, and he's done that. And we're really proud of him.”

Jerry Sipple, Brett Jones and Gregoryshon Magee each had seven points in the showdown.

The coach admitted that it was a little frustrating that the Panthers could not play in their regular style in this game, but the team just had to adjust.

“Obviously, you'd rather have those teams adjust to you,” Coombs said. “They really slowed it down. In fact, that's what they talked about after the game is that they wanted to slow us down, and they did a good job of it. I was OK with us being in our half-court sets, because we knew that was going to happen and I thought we executed pretty well.”

Coombs is much happier with his team (8-8) than he was last weekend, when they lost two straight games at the New Year's tournament it hosted.

“We figured some things out,” Coombs said, “I think we got our toughness back and our legs back underneath us, but I'm very pleased with where we're at.”

The Panthers have two home games this week, which the coach classifies as “very winnable games.” This includes a Wednesday showdown, at 8 p.m., with their rivals from Allen County.

“We saw them at our classic,” Coombs said, “very scrappy team. They've got some inside guys that can play. They've got some guards that can play a little bit, so it's another game that we're going to have to come out and battle just to get the victory.”