Destiny Smith drills six 3's as Garden City tops Cowley

Garden City, KS-Destiny Smith couldn't miss. 

The freshman guard drained a season-high six 3's, Dayshawna Carter scored 22 points, and Garden City beat Cowley, 65-54 for its second straight win Monday night at Conestoga Arena. They improved to 7-7 overall and 3-5 in conference play.  

Taya Davis orchestrated the offense posting a double-double with 11 points and 13 assists in 39 minutes. 

"I am really proud of this team," Head Coach, Antwain Scales said afterwards. "They really showed me some things tonight. They attacked the basket, and Destiny Smith was big for us from the 3-point line."

Smith scored 22 points on just 12 shots in 25 minutes. She was 6-of-10 from long range canning four triples in the second half. As a team, Garden City connected on a season-best nine 3-pointers.  

"This was a great team win," Scales added. "We needed a game like this."

Garden City used a 12-2 run to build a 10-point first-quarter lead. They were up 18-11 going into the second. Cowley then responded with a 14-7 surge capped with Carson Dean's left-wing 3-pointer that knotted the game at 25. But the Broncbusters had the last laugh when Destiny Smith was fouled by Baylee Fincher shooting a 3 in the final seconds. She hit 1-of-3 from the line to put Garden City up, 26-25 at the break.  

"Taya Davis was the key to all of this," Scales said. "She was finding Destiny; she was finding Dayshawna. That's Garden City women's basketball."

Carter's layup, two free throws and 3-pointer put the Broncbusters up 39-32 with three minutes to go in the third. When the Tigers closed the deficit to three, Davis hit Smith in rhythm for a 25-footer to make it 45-39. Garden City was up four going to the fourth. 

"We did a lot of really good things tonight," Scales mentioned. 

The Broncbusters kept the pressure on in the fourth. Smith hit a long 2, Davis made a layup in traffic, and Smith splashed home back-to-back 3-pointers to give Garden City its largest lead, 57-45 with 5:34 to play.  

Garden City turned it over only 12 times, the second fewest in a game this season. Ariyah Brooks, who started for the injured Jae'Mya Lyons, had a team-high nine rebounds. 

Fincher paced the Tigers (7-7, 2-6) with 14 points but was just 6-of-15 from the field. Gilpin had 12 points.