Cowboys Drop Northeastern A&M 73-63, Advance to NJCAA National Tournament for 10th Time

SHAWNEE—Connors State for the second consecutive year and Cowboys head coach Bill Muse for the 10^th time will be going to the Big Dance in Hutchinson, Kan., March 19-24^th.

The top-seed and 13^th-ranked Cowboys (29-3) earned the right to represent NJCAA Region II after fighting off upset minded Northeastern A&M 73-63 at Oklahoma Baptist University's Noble Complex Saturday.

"This tournament is never easy," said Muse. "Championship Day you come in here hoping for the best. We knew they (NEO) were going to make a run. We had a few turnovers here and there, little sloppy play.

"But we were pretty resilient the last 2:30. We took a 3-point lead to 10 points pretty fast. We did some good stuff the last two minutes," said Muse.

Connors jumped out to a 13-3 lead to open the game, and led by 12 points at the half, 35-23 and appeared to have the game well in hand.

However, the second half was a dog fight as Northeastern A&M (22-9) began chipping away at the Cowboys advantage.

But it was Connors' Mason Jones, who was named the Region II Most Valuable Player, who led the Cowboys charge with 31 points.

"This was a great game," said Mason. "We started early with a little run and we played resilient. We just did what we had to do to win. We just gutted it out to win the game."

Concerning the MVP honor, Mason said, "I didn't think anything about it before the game. I just wanted to win. I didn't play well yesterday. I am just grateful."

Concerning Mason's play in the tournament, Muse said, 'He's a talented player who can shoot the basketball. He has worked hard on his game. It's nice to see someone get rewarded for his hard work."

The Norsemen, who battled back to within three points, 59-56 behind Valentin Van Patten, who finished with 14 points pacing NEO's scoring, with 5:33 remaining.

After buckets by Ra'Shawn Langston (10 points, who was also named to the All-Tournament team) and Darius Roy (10 points), the Cowboys led by six points 64-58 at the 3:49 mark.

NEO cut the margin to four on a bucket by David Thornton 64-60 with 2:20 left. That's when the Cowboys behind Mason, Terrance Jones and Langston put it away for Connors.

Mason drained a 12-footer off the right wing to make it 67-60 after NEO's Thornton scored with 1:49 left.  Northeastern trailing by seven as the clock ticked down, fouled Mason. The freshman from DeSoto, Texas, hit two free throws for a 69-60 Cowboy advantage.

Norsemen's Van Patten drained his second trey of the game to cut the Connors margin to six points 69-63 with 1:18 remaining.

Langston, who hit the floor hard late in the game (head), returned sank two free throws giving Connors an eight-point bulge 71-63 with 41 seconds left.

Mason put it away at the 30-second mark with a drive to the basket, following steal of an NEO inbound pass.

Connors shot 27-of-63 from the field for 42.9 percent and was 10-of-21 from behind the arc for 47.6 percent. NEO was 26-of-64 (40.6) and 6-22 on treys (27.3).

At the free throw line Connors held the advantage 9-of-12 to NEO's 5-of-10. The Norse held the rebounding advantage, outrebounding the Cowboys 43-37.

Coulter pulled down 11 boards to lead Connors, while Van Patten, scored a double-double with 10 rebounds to go along with his 14 points.

CONNORS STATE 73, NORTHEASTERN A&M 63

Northeastern A&M 23 40--63

Connors State  35  38--73

Northeastern A&M (22-9)—Van Pattan 14, Taylor 12, Johnson 11, Lukasiewicz 6, Ward 6, Thornton 6, Moody 4, Morris 4.

Connors State (29-3)—Mason 31, Roy 12, Langston 10, Coulter 8, T. Jones 5, Bobb 4, Cockrell 3.