Warner- The Connors State Cowboys avenged an earlier season loss Monday with an important Oklahoma Collegiate Athletic Conference win 90-70 over the Eastern Oklahoma State College Mountaineers at Melvin Self Fieldhouse.

 

The victory keeps the Cowboys tied for the top spot in the OCAC with Northern Oklahoma College- Tonkawa at 7-3 and 21-3 overall and avenges a 103-93 loss to Eastern in late November.

"I think the big thing tonight was that our guys played with a lot of intensity and determination to not get swept by Eastern," said Cowboys coach Bill Muse. "They scored a lot of points on us last time and that's not our game. They're a hard team to play because their style of play is not one you see every day."

Tulsa Rogers product Marquel Sutton, who had 33 points in the first meeting with Eastern, scored 34 on Monday night to lead all scorers. But one of the big differences in the two games was super sophomore Jahcoree Ealy. The Damascus, Arkansas product was held to just three points in the first meeting but tallied a double-double Monday night with 20 points and a dozen rebounds. UCO transfer DJ Basey had one of his best games as a Cowboy with 12 points and six rebounds. And there were others according to Muse.

"Jordan Tillmon did a nice job of running the team tonight. Mason Alexander took a key charge early in the second half, Xavier Glenn hit some shots early, and Sammy Mike came in and gave us some good minutes in the middle off the bench," said  Muse.

Eastern (17-5, 5-4 OCAC) was led by Nigel John with 18 points and Josh Jones of Broken Bow had 11 points.

The Cowboys are idle until next Monday when they travel to Redlands.