March 28, 2024

Short Ride! Broncbuster Women Lose in First Round of Region VI Basketball

Arkansas City, KS (westernkansasnews.com) The atmosphere was loose before Garden City Community College’s first round region six tournament game at Cowley CC on Saturday afternoon.   While both teams played tight in the first few minutes, one squad pulled out of it while the other slumped the rest of the half and could not recover the rest of the game.  Unfortunately, the team that had to play catch up was Garden City.

Highlights

For the first time in four years the Broncbusters (15-16) failed to make the semifinals of the region six tournament losing 86-57 to Cowley (24-7).  Cowley moves on to play in the region six quarterfinals against west second seed Seward County.

Cowley hit almost fifty-eight percent of their shots in the first half and used a 39-13 run over the last 12 minutes to take a 51-21 lead at half.  Led by Hannah Alexander who poured in 27 points and 7 rebounds the Tigers began to take control of the game about ten minutes in. Garden City also did not help their cause by committing fifteen first half turnovers, eight of them in the first ten minutes.

Cowley hit 8-18 three point shots and connected on their first nine free throws to go 18-22 from the line short of 82 percent.  Tiger guard Julie Raven went 3-6 in three point attempts, giving her 93 for the season one short of tying the school record set last year by Emily Gronas.

GCCC Coach Nick Salazar’s Comments

Garden City was led by Loysha Morris.  In her final game with the Broncbusters she had 11 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists.  For the Broncbusters it was their worst record at 15-16 since the 2009-10 season when they went 12-19.  Three seasons later, the team finished 29-4 setting a school record for wins under Alaura Sharp.