ARKANSAS CITY, KS - The up and down the court affair Saturday night in Arkansas City, Kansas, coupled with missed opportunities late in the game, was too much for the Neosho County Community College men's basketball team as they dropped a 109-96 contest at #12 Cowley College.
The loss drops the orange and black to 8-10 on the season with six games to play in regular-season play. Neosho will take Sunday off but jump back into play Monday when the Allen County Red Devils come to town for a cross-county matchup. The tip is set for 5:30PM in Panther Gymnasium. The Panthers have a rough stretch playing four games in six days as they are still playing catch-up to complete the conference schedule after being quarantined twice due to COVID protocol.
The Panthers did not lack in scoring, as six Panthers were in double-digit scoring. Daniel Titus led the Panthers with 19 points, Cougar Downing scored 16 points, Deondre Buggage and Magic Reliford both added 13 points while Quentin Asberry contributed 11 points and De'Antray Hughes ended with 10 points.
The Panthers had a solid night shooting, but free throws and turnovers would ultimately sink the Panthers. Neosho would knock down 7 shots from behind the arch and would get to the free-throw line 31 times but only connected on 17 of them, shooting 54% on the night from the charity stripe. The Tigers meanwhile, shot a blistering (22-24) 91% from the free-throw line and would knock down 9 shots from three-point range. Turnovers were high for each team, Neosho giving away 20 opportunities while Cowley committed 15 turnovers.
Cowley had a plus 5 rebounding edge but 24 of those came on the offensive end resulting in 18 second-chance points. While the Panthers would also grab 24 offensive rebounds but only managed to come away with 12-second chance points.
Coach Jeremy Coombs on the loss, "Cowley is a great team and they're playing great basketball right now. They are the #12 team in the country for a reason, but I thought we battled hard but at the end of the day we must do the little things like knock down free throws, limit the turnovers and rebound if we want to win games like that."
Neosho gave the high scoring Tigers a dose of their own medicine in the second half, stringing a 13-3 run and with just 3 minutes left to play cut the Tiger advantage to just 6 points. The Panthers would win the second half 56-55 but unfortunately, it was not enough to overcome the 14-point halftime deficit.
NEXT UP:
The Panthers have three home games in a row as they host Allen County March 22nd, Butler County March 24th and Coffeyville March 25th. The Panthers will then hit the road Saturday, March 27th to take on Cloud County in Concordia, KS.
Coombs on the Panthers crazy schedule, "Hey, it is what it is…we are trying to do whatever it takes to complete our season. It's not ideal but these guys have done a great job handling this crazy year and I want nothing more than for them to play all 22 scheduled games."
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