Big fourth quarter pushes Broncbusters to second straight win

Garden City, KS-For the second straight game, Garden City looked like the team that began the year 8-0. 

Stevi Yancy and Sariah Conley combined for 42 points to lead four Broncbusters in double figures as Garden City pulled away from Cowley, 76-61 Wednesday night at Conestoga Arena. 

"We're learning a little bit," Head Coach, Greg Franklin said afterwards. "I liked our time -and-score clock management; we did a really nice job with that." 

Conley finished 6-of-9 shooting and 4-of-5 from 3 for Garden City, which improved to 12-10 overall and 7-10 in the Jayhawk. Ana Ramos Pires chipped in 14 points, and Sierra Driessen scored 13.  

Hattie Pyle finished with 21 points, nine assists, and four rebounds for Cowley, which lost its fifth straight game.  

"I thought we shared the ball really well," Franklin explained. "I think we are figuring out how to finish games collectively instead of by ourselves."

For the most part, Garden City controlled this game, scoring the first five points of the contest before building a 17-8 lead following Antonicia Moultrie's 15-foot jumper. They were up four after one and pushed the advantage to 10 following Maya Nieto's triple off a pretty Sierra Driessen assist that made it 33-23 with 4:47 remaining.  

"It feels really good because we've been putting in the work in practice," Moultrie said. "

The Tigers managed to respond with a 12-2 run to end the half closing within two, 37-35 at the break.  

Garden City ramped things up over the final 20 minutes.  

Using a tenacious half court, pressure defense, the Broncbusters scored 27 points off 25 Cowley turnovers, turning a close game into a runaway. And after trailing by two entering the fourth, Garden City finished the job, responding with an 18-4 surge capped by a Conley driving layup and subsequent 3-pointer from the wing that gave Greg Franklin's squad a 69-55 advantage with 2:10 remaining.    

"If we can keep improving like we have the past two games, it says a lot," Franklin added. "It's a process."

Garden City shot 50 percent or better from the field (50.9) for a second consecutive game, the first time all season they accomplished that feat. They were 9-of-23 from downtown and 9-of-10 from the free throw line. They had 24 assists and 34 points in the paint.