Big second quarter lifts Lady Tigers to 89-66 season-opening road win

A pair of former Ponca City (OK) High School teammates came off the bench to help lift the Cowley College women's basketball team to an 89-66 season-opening road win over Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa Wednesday in Tonkawa, OK.

Freshman guards Ryley Beard and Baylee Fincher, who twice led Ponca City High School to the state tournament, had solid debuts in a Lady Tiger uniform. Beard led Cowley with 19 points on 5-of-9 shooting from three-point range, while Fincher added 11 points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals.

"Riley hit some big shots for us and Bailey served as a nice play maker," Cowley head coach Todd Clark said.

The Lady Tigers shook off a slow start to Wednesday's game. Trailing 8-7 with just over two minutes left in the first quarter, Cowley's offense awoke to close the quarter on a 14-7 run to lead 21-15 following Shontrice Austin's layup just before the first quarter buzzer.

Cowley would carry the momentum into a huge second quarter that saw the Lady Tigers out-score the Lady Mavericks 33-12 as they were doubling up NOC 54-27 at halftime.

"We started making open shots and were able to create points off our defense," Clark said.

Cowley would then score the first 10 points of the third quarter to lead 64-27 and were comfortably ahead 77-45 after three quarters of play.

With the game in hand, Cowley head coach Todd Clark was able to play everyone on the roster and Cowley got 61 points worth of bench production.

"Any time you can go on the road and get a win is big," Clark said. "Road wins are always a little sweeter."

Another Lady Tiger making their debut was 6'0" freshman Martyna Kowalska from Poland. Kowalska made an immediate impact, finishing with 10 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots.

"She was more aggressive than she has been," Clark said.

NOC's Delaney Reimer led all scorers with 24 points, but it was not enough to offset the 35 turnovers committed by the Lady Mavericks.

Cowley and NOC will complete the home and away series by playing Saturday at 5:30 p.m. in Arkansas City. Due to conference bylaws no fans will be allowed in attendance.

"It's a weird schedule playing them again on such a quick turnaround, but hopefully this will prepare us for some other teams we will play games against close together," Clark said.

Box score:

Cowley (89): Milena Fromming 0-4 0-0 0, Torri Vang 1-4 0-0 2, Jayden Marlnee 3-4 3-8 9, Seanna Boltz 3-16 0-0 7, Martyna Kowalska 4-7 2-4 10, Brittney Byers 3-7 0-0 8, Ryley Beard 7-12 5-9 19, Baylee Fincher 3-8 4-4 11, Kalyne Daniels 3-5 5-6 11, Shontrice Austin 1-3 2-4 4, Teagan Brouwer 1-2 1-1 3, Lucy Lally 1-6 0-0 2, Karolina Juresiute 0-1 0-0 0, Juliet Spangler 0-0 0-0 0, Shamarra Henderson 1-2 1-2 3. Totals: 31-82 18-31 89.

NOC (66): Caitlin Bailey 1-3 3-4 5, Delaney Reimer 8-14 4-7 24, Gavriel Myers 1-2 1-2 3, Kaitlyn Clemons 0-1 0-0 0, Radina Zhivacha 2-14 0-0 5, Morgan Livesay 2-8 0-0 5, Chloe Brinlee 2-4 4-4 8, Travisha Cogdell 2-6 2-3 6, Kailynn Belcher 1-3 0-0 2, Lauren Coates 1-6 6-8 8. Totals: 20-61 20-28 66.

Three-pointers: Cowley 9-40 (Beard 5-9, Byers 2-5, Boltz 1-14, Fincher 1-4, Fromming 0-3, Lally 0-3, Vang 0-2), NOC 6-29 (Reimer 4-7, Zhivachka 1-8, Livesay 1-6, Belcher 0-2, Bailey 0-2, Brinlee 0-2, Cogdell 0-1, Myers 0-1). Rebounds: Cowley 53 (Marlnee, Kowalska 8), NOC 49 (Cogdell, Zhivachka 8). Assists: Cowley 22 (Fincher, Austin 4), NOC 8 (Bailey, Brinlee 2). Turnovers: Cowley 22, NOC 35. Total fouls: Cowley 24, NOC 23. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.