Tigers suffer gut-wrenching overtime defeat at NOC-Tonkawa

Leading by 12 points (69-57) with less than six minutes remaining in its first road game of the season, the Cowley College men's basketball team was unable to pull out the victory as Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa's Aaron Johnson hit a turn-around 30-foot jumper to force overtime and the Mavericks went on to the 89-83 win.

Cowley led most of the contest as they built a 42-32 halftime lead and led 61-47 midway through the second half.

After seeing its lead dwindle to 64-57 with six minutes remaining, NOC-Tonkawa was whistled for three technical fouls in a five-second span. Cowley's Arzhonte Dallas would make five of the six free-throw attempts off the technical to push the Tigers' lead back to 12 (69-57).

However, back-to-back three-point plays by the Mavericks in a 10-second span helped NOC mount its comeback.

Leading 72-70 late in the game, Cowley sophomore Damare Smith was fouled with 10.1 seconds left. Smith made 1-of-2 free-throws to increase the Tigers' lead to three. However, the Mavericks' Anthony Ignowski missed a three-pointer in the closing seconds, but the ball caromed out past the three-point line, where Johnson grabbed the rebound and hoisted up the game-tying shot. Cowley was even called for a foul on the shot, and Johnson had a chance to win the game in regulation, but his free throw with 0.4 seconds left was off the mark.

The Mavericks got a dunk from Jordan Gorecki to begin overtime and out-scored the Tigers 16-10 in the extra session as they improved their record to 3-1 on the season.

The loss drops Cowley's record to 2-1. 

"We aren't going to make any excuses for losing to Tonkawa," Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson said. "We had every opportunity to close out the game, and we didn't get it done. Credit to them for making all the necessary plays they needed to in order to win the game."

Dallas led Cowley with 29 points as he went 8-of-19 from the floor and 13-of-20 from the foul line. Jeff Nwankwo continued his torrid start to the season by finishing with 19 points and 10 boards, while freshman Leslie Owens added 12 points by going 4-of-5 from the floor and 4-of-4 from the free-throw line.

Javontae Campbell, who entered Wednesday's game averaging 36.3 points per game, led the Mavericks with 21 points on 6-of-19 shooting, while Tyson Brown added 20.

The Tigers will remain on the road to play a pair of games this weekend. On Friday, Cowley will face Allen Community College at 7 p.m. The Tigers will then take on Labette on Saturday at 2 p.m. Both games will be played in Iola, KS.

"We don't have time to dwell on this loss," Jackson said. "We play Allen tomorrow. We need to watch film, learn from our mistakes, and find a way to bounce back."

Box score:

Cowley (83): Avante Nichols 2-5 2-4 6, Jeff Nwankwo 9-16 0-1 17, Arzhonte Dallas 8-19 13-20 31, Damare Smith 0-5 3-6 3, Corey Thomas 1-8 3-4 5, Shamarrie Hugie 4-5 0-0 9, Marcus Zeigler 0-5 0-0 0, Leslie Owens 4-5 4-4 12, Faustin Phanor 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 27-67 27-41 83.

NOC (89): Aaron Johnson 3-5 1-7 8, Javontae Campbell 6-19 9-11 21, James Brown Jr. 3-8 8-11 14, Anthony Ignowski 4-14 5-7 14, Jordan Gorecki 4-9 3-6 11, Tyson Brown 6-11 3-4 20, Famious French 0-0 0-0 0, Kayden Shaw 0-0 0-0 0, Tyler Day 0-0 0-0 0, Matet Dhieu 0-3 1-2 1. Totals: 26-69 30-48 89.

Three-pointers: Cowley 2-21 (Nwankwo 1-4, Hugie 1-1, Dallas 0-5, Thomas 0-4, Smith 0-3, Zeigler 0-3, Nichols 0-1), NOC (7-21 (Brown 5-7, Ignowski 1-4, Johnson 1-1, Campbell 0-5, Brown 0-2, Dhieu 0-2). Rebounds: Cowley 42 (Nwankwo 10), NOC 40 (Johnson 15). Assists: Cowley 14 (Dallas, Smith 5), NOC 13 (Ignowski 8). Turnovers: Cowley 22, NOC 11. Total fouls: Cowley 33, NOC 21. Fouled out: Dallas, Smith, Owens, Campbell. Technicals: NOC head coach (2), James Brown, Jr.