WARNER – Connors State battled back from an 11-point second half deficit, only to have a last second shot by Josh Cameron miss at the buzzer and the Northern-Tonkawa Mavericks escape with a 67-65 victory at Melvin Self Field House Monday night in an Oklahoma Collegiate Athletic Conference clash.

The Cowboys fall to 20-6 on the year and 10-5 in OCAC league play, while the Mavericks improve to 14-13 and 9-6. Connors will go on the road Thursday night to play Northern-Enid in another OCAC clash.

“We let the game get away from us in the first half when they scored 40 points, that can’t happen,” said Connors head coach Bill Muse. “Start of the second half they kicked us. We got down five to 11 and then we just tried to grind it back out. When  you do that you get what you deserve. They hit their last second shot and made it and we didn’t”

Cameron and Jared Harrison each scored 16 points for the Cowboys with Shaquille Shannon scoring 14, but it wasn’t enough as they were just 19-of-29 at the free throw line.

Northern opened the second half with six straight points to grab a 45-35 advantage. Connors behind Cameron and Harrison sliced the NOC lead to two points with 7:48 left. Cameron tied it for the first time in the second half on a drive to the bucket, 57-57, with 6:17 remaining.

Northern then took a 5-point lead 64-59 with 3:15 left. Shannon drained two free throws cutting the NOC lead to three points at the 2:12 mark. Cameron then sank two more free throws slicing NOC’s lead to a point 64-63 with 56 seconds left.

Following a missed NOC shot, Connors’ Harrison was fouled by B.J. McDonald and the Cowboy gave CSC the lead 65-64 when he sank both free throws with 22 seconds remaining.

NOC called timeout after getting the ball to midcourt with 14 seconds left. On the inbounds pass from Alex Moore to Thun, he dribbled free and took a 3-point shot that was all net with 5.3 ticks left for a 67-65 lead.

Connors then went the length of the floor and Cameron’s shot was off the mark at the buzzer.



Women

CSC 77, NO-T 60

Connors State overcame a barrage of 3-point shots by the Lady Mavericks in the first half, eight from behind the arc, to deadlock Northern- Tonkawa 35-35 at the half.

Cowgirls  then put on a scoring spurt of the own to open the final 20 minutes, taking the lead for good 47-44 on a 3-point basket by Tiffanie Abrams with 13:51 left. Connors overwhelmed NOC-Tonkawa the rest of the way to secure the victory.

Tiara Hall led the Cowgirls scoring barrage with a double-double, scoring 21 points and pulling down 16 rebounds. Abrams followed with 18 points.

The Cowgirls improve to 16-10 on the season and 9-6 in Oklahoma Collegiate Athletic Conference play, while the Lady Mavericks fall to 13-14 and 8-7 in league action.

Connors stretched its lead to 17 points, 68-50 with 4:10 remaining, the largest CSC lead of the game, as the Cowgirls outscored the Lady Mavericks 21-5 to put the game away.