Broncbusters squander fourth-quarter lead; fall at Cowley

Arkansas City, KS-The final nine minutes of Wednesday night's game will haunt Greg Franklin for the foreseeable future.  

The veteran coach watched as a nine-point fourth-quarter lead disintegrated. Elysa Martinez finished with 19 points and six steals, Alexcia Murphy and Jamie Molina combined for 21 off the bench, and Cowley handed Garden City a 63-53 loss at William Scott Gym.  

Bruna Costa Da Silva scored a season-high 22 points for Garden City, which dropped their third straight game to fall to 7-6 overall and 4-4 in conference play. Antonicia Moultrie had 16 points and 10 rebounds.  

Following Da Silva's 3-pointer that gave Garden City its biggest lead of the night, 48-39 with 9:21 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Broncbusters went stone cold. Ana Ramos Pires turned the ball over on the visitors' next possession, Costa Da Silva and Sierra Driessen each had layups blocked by Murphy in transition, and Franklin was assessed a technical foul, all within a span of 70 seconds.  

It totally flipped the game. 

Garden City went the next six minutes without scoring, Cowley responded with 20 straight points, and just like that, the Broncbusters' nine-point lead evaporated into a 59-48 deficit once Elysa Martinez sank two free throws with 3:36 to go. Only Moultrie's layup with 3:25 to play ended the drought. 

Garden City shot 37 percent marking the fourth straight game where they were held under 40. They turned the ball over a season-high 30 times and were held to just eight points in the final quarter. 

After trailing by as many as 12 three minutes into the second period, the Broncbusters answered with a 17-3 run capped by a Moultrie layup that put Garden City up by two. After Martinez tied the game on the other end, Costa Da Silva drilled a 3-pointer to give the visitors a 32-29 advantage. They were down one at the break.