DODGE CITY, Kan. - Needing just one win to clinch a home NJCAA Region VI home playoff game, the Dodge City Community College men's basketball team was pushed to the limit before coming away with a 103-97 overtime win over Cowley College at the Student Activities in Dodge City on Wednesday, February 15th.
The win secures a top-eight finish in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference for the Conquistadors who improved to 18-8, and 15-7 in conference play with the win. Both of DC3's wins over Cowley this season have seen Dodge City score 103 points while the two wins are by a combined 11 points. The Tigers are now 14-12 overall and 11-11 in the Jayhawk Conference.
DC3 would never trail in the game, scoring the first six points of the game and 13 of the first 15 to take a 13-2 lead at the 15:51 mark in the first half. Cowley would score the next eight points in a span of 1:47 to cut the Conquistador lead to 13-10 before 14-0 run by Dodge City would push the lead to DC3's largest of the game at 27-10 with 9:43 remaining in the first half. The Conquistadors would maintain their double digit lead up until the 2:50 mark in the first half when a Mike'l Simms layup would cut the Dodge City lead to 39-30 as Cowley would end the half on a 13-5 run to trail 44-37 at intermission.
A familiar start to the second half would see Dodge City score the first seven points of the half to take a 51-37 lead just over two minutes into the half as DC3 would appear to be on their way to an easy victory. It would not be the case though, as Cowley would hit back-to-back three's followed by a fast break layup to score seven straight points en route to capping off a 12-0 run to trail 54-52 with 11:18 remaining in regulation. Dodge City's lead would hover between four and six points for the next several minutes of the game before the Tigers would get within a single point on two separate occasions with just over five minutes remaining and tie the game at 68 with 5:09 remaining. DC3 would re-take the lead but could not big a gap bigger than six for the rest of regulation as Cowley would hit some timely shots to stay within a possession. Leading by four with six seconds remaining,
Kourtney Ware would sink two free throws to put the Conqs up six when Cowley would get a triple by Cedric Rembert with just 0.8 remaining on the clock before DC3 would turn the ball over without any time running off the clock. A Tiger inbounds pass to the near corner would allow for a desperation game-tying three to fall and send the game into the extra session tied at 88.
In the extra session, DC3 would see
Nick Noskowiak hit his third three of the game to jump out to a 91-88 lead just 41 seconds into the extra frame while becoming the beneficiary of Tiger foul trouble as two Cowley players would foul out in the first two minutes of overtime. Cowley would tie the game at 93 with 2:16 remaining in overtime and again at 95 just 54 seconds later before a
Trevon Evans layup would give Dodge City the lead for good. DC3 would score eight of the last 10 points in the game, with Ware and
Trey Grundy III combining to go six of six from the charity stripe in the final 34 seconds of the game to allow the Conqs to pull out victory.
"It seems like every year we match up with Cowley, we have to find a way to pull out a game which we did tonight" said head coach
Kyle Campbell in a post-game interview. "We shouldn't have ever been in that situation, but it's extremely hard to put games away and Cowley came out ready to fight until the final whistle."
Dodge City shot over 50 percent from the floor for the eighth time this season, finishing 31 of 58 (53.4%) from the field while connecting on seven of 24 (29.2%) of their treys. One of the keys to the game would be free throw shooting as DC3 managed to get the line 44 times and connect on 34 (77.3%) compared to just 10 of 20 (50.0%) shooting from the charity stripe for Cowley. Each team would score 44 points in the paint as Dodge City would hold a 40-32 rebounding edge and 29-27 advantage in points off turnovers.
Ware would score a career-high 35 points to lead the Conqs with 18 points coming from the charity stripe (18-23).
Josh Boutte finished with 11 points and a game-high 14 rebounds while Noskowiak had 14 points off the bench.
Trevon Evans would turn in a career-high 22 points on nine of 11 shooting from the floor and a perfect 3-3 effort at the free throw line. Cowley had three players in double-figures led by 28 points and nine rebounds from Simms.
With four games left in the regular season, Dodge City sits just one game back of Barton for second place in the KJCCC and two games clear of Cloud County in fourth-place. DC3 can finish no-worse than fifth place in the conference, and will host a Region VI home playoff game on Thursday, March 2nd. Next in store for Dodge City is a trip to Allen County on Saturday, with tip-off slated for 4 p.m. The Red Devils dropped an 86-68 road game at Independence on Wednesday evening to fall to 12-14 overall and 9-13 in the KJCCC. In the first game out of the holiday break earlier this year, Dodge City snuck out an 88-82 home win over Allen.
