Bligen's 25 powers Garden City past Cowley

By Mike Pilosof

Photo by Adam Shrimplin

Garden City, KS-The hottest team in the country kept it rolling on Saturday.

Heru Bligen was sensational, scoring a game-high 25 points, Mo Diarra recorded his 16^th double-double of the season with 22 points and 13 rebounds, and No. 17 Garden City powered past Cowley, 82-74 at Conestoga Arena. It was the Broncbusters 12^th win in their last 13 games, improving to 20-6 overall and 14-6 in the Jayhawk.

"We can win in so many different ways," Head Coach, Bill Morosco said. "We played really well defensively."

Their offense wasn't too shabby either. The Broncbusters shot 41 percent, hit nine 3-pointers, and dished out 23 assists. They also scored 25 points off 23 Tiger turnovers.  

"Our pressure changed the complexion of the game," Morosco added.

Garden City set the tone right from the jump. Diarra nailed a 3-pointer; then stole the ball from Clarence King before hammering down a two-handed jam. Moments later, Bligen added a three-point play, and the Broncbusters were up 10-3 two minutes into the game.

"I really like the way we started tonight," Morosco explained. "We had active hands, and we had a lot of deflections."

The Broncbusters trailed for only 64 seconds in the first half. Once Cowley went up by two on the heels of a 23-14 run, Tone Hunter answered with a deep 3-pointer from the wing, Marko Dosen cashed in from long range on Garden City's next possession, and the brown and gold was back up by four. They led 41-36 at the break.

Diarra helped push the lead to double digits early in the second half, hitting a 3-pointer and finishing with a dunk in transition for a 48-36 advantage. But the Tigers responded valiantly, answering with 20-5 surge, which was capped by Xavier Valley's triple that gave the visitors a 56-53 edge with 12:23 left.

"We let our guard down a little bit in the second half," Morosco stated.

Garden City wasn't down for long, and Josh Nwankwo, who hit seven 3-pointers in Wednesday's win at Northwest Tech, buried a pair of treys, and Octave followed with a 25-footer, putting the Broncbusters up 62-56 halfway through the period.

"I loved our fight tonight," Morosco said. "They punched back several times, and we always had an answer."

The Broncbusters never trailed again.

Nwankwo hit a pair of contested layups, Diarra added a tough three-point play on a beautiful reverse finish, and Garden City had a 12-point cushion with 3:32 left.   

Nwankwo finished with 15 points and five steals in 26 minutes off the bench for the Broncbusters. Hunter, who shot just 2-of-11, had six points, eight assists, and three steals.

Valley led the way for the Tigers with 23 points on 9-of-18 from the field.

Next up: Garden City vs. Pratt-Monday, Feb. 14-7:30 p.m. CDT