Cowboys Finish Regular Season with Win on Sophomore Night

Cowboys Finish Regular Season with Win on Sophomore Night

Game Leaders

Eastern Oklahoma State College
Pts: Jackson Greene - 27
Reb: Jackson Greene - 10
Ast: Marque Wilkerson - 6
Connors State College
Pts: Donyae May - 22
Reb: Bradyn Hubbard - 10
Ast: Donyae May - 10

Team Stats

Eastern Oklahoma State College
Connors State College

Field Goals

(22-64)
(22-48)

Field Goal %

34.4%
45.8%

Rebounds

34
38

Assists

9
19

Turnovers

12
18
full stats
Posted: Mar 07, 2024

Warner, OK- Sophomore guard Donyae Mae sparked a second-half rally with five 3-pointers and a total of 22 points to lead the Connors State Cowboys to a 72-64 win over the Eastern State to close out the regular season Thursday night at Melvin Self Fieldhouse.

With the win, Connors enters the postseason with a 28-2 overall mark and in the process captured the Oklahoma Collegiate Athletic Conference championship with a 15-1 record, earning the top seed for next week's NJCAA Region 2 tournament to be played at Muskogee's Rougher Village.

In the first half the Mountaineers packed the paint inside limiting the offensive efforts of forward Bradyn Hubbard and center Buddy Hammer and the Cowboys owned a slim 28-20 lead at intermission.

But with Mae pouring it in from the outside, things opened up a little more for Hammer in the second half when he scored 12 of his 18 points. Eastern would whittle the Cowboys lead down to two with 11:23 left to play, but over the next six minutes with the help of Mae's outside shooting, Connors outscored Eastern 18-10. They eventually stretched their lead to 15 points with just over four minutes to play. The Mountaineers, though, would win the last four minutes outscoring the Cowboys 17-10 but it wouldn't be enough to prevent the Cowboy win.

"We didn't play our best basketball coming out of our intense game Monday against NEO, but we found a way to win and I'm just very proud of our guys and the effort they put forth this season," said Cowboys head coach Bill Muse. "It will be nice to have a few days to get our legs back underneath us before the tournament."

Tony Green added 15 points for Connors while Hubbard finished with 12. Eastern sophomore Jackson Green led all scorers with 27 points as the Mountaineers finished 20-10 for the regular season.
 
This will mark the first time since 2009 that both the men and women enter postseason play as conference champs. The Cowboys will Play Redlands Community College Thursday at 3 p.m. with the tournament semifinals next Friday and the finals next Saturday.