Cowgirls Cruise 76-45 Victory

WARNER---A strong first half helped propel the Connors State Cowgirls to a season-opening 76-45 win over the Oklahoma Wesleyan JV Thursday night at Melvin Self Fieldhouse,

    With seven players returning from a 20-plus win season last year, coach Jamie Fisher was pleased with the offensive execution of his team.

   "We like to play inside/out where we look to get the ball into our post players and then kick it back out to the guards and we did a good job of that tonight. We've got the right pieces, we just need to get it all to gel,," said Fisher now in his sixth season as the Cowgirl head coach.

    One of those returning players for Connors is Muldrow product Chalynn Mayes who scored 13 first quarter points to help push the Cowgirls to an insurmountable lead that ballooned to a 46-19 halftime advantage. There was also lots of help off the bench for Connors as 12 of the 13 players who got into the game posted numbers in the scoring column and Fisher mentioned a few.

    "Zippora Johnson, a sophomore transfer from Chicago State, had a nice game for us and I'm hoping she'll be a bright spot for our season. Baylee Hall from Hulbert gave us some good minutes and freshman Kionce Woods did a good job. As a 6-1 guard, she'll be a mismatch nightmare for a lot of our opponents."

    With the big half time lead, Fisher said he felt the Cowgirls lost a little focus in the third quarter and hurt themselves with fouls.

    "I didn't like how we fouled a lot and that's something we've got to work on. I think we saw a lot more touch fouls called tonight than we were used to seeing in our scrimmages. But otherwise, I was pleased with our team chemistry, our pace of the game and the way we executed our offensive sets," said the Cowgirl head man.

    Mayes led the Cowgirls with 14 points and Johnson had 10 while Cheyanne Crain and Woods each had nine points on the night. Wesleyan's Celeste Clement led the Eagles with 14 points.

     Although it's just the second game of the season on Saturday, the Cowgirls will face what promises to be one of their toughest tests of the season as they entertain South Plains (Tx) College in a 2 p.m. tipoff. The Lady Texans were 32-1 last year and return three starters from that team. They open their season at NEO Friday night before coming to Warner.

   "They're ranked third in the nation in pre-season and a lot of folks feel they would have won the national title last year if the tournament hadn't been cancelled," said Fisher.

    On the men's side, the Cowboys are back in action at home tonight at 7 p.m. against Oklahoma Wesleyan.

 Written By: Nick Hampton