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Connors State College

Cowboys Fall to Triton College in NJCAA Final Four

The clock finally struck midnight for Cinderella Connors State, but not before it went down swinging. The Cowboys, who got everyone’s attention with their battle from the number 19 seed all the way to the national semifinals, couldn’t come up with the magic at the end and fell to the Triton College Trojans 87-84 in a wild game in the junior college final four at Hutchinson, Kansas Thursday night.

Cowboys Fall to Triton College in NJCAA Final Four
Box Score
March 28, 2024

Hutchinson, Kansas- The clock finally struck midnight for Cinderella Connors State, but not before it went down swinging.

The Cowboys, who got everyone's attention with their battle from the number 19 seed all the way to the national semifinals, couldn't come up with the magic at the end and fell to the Triton College Trojans 87-84 in a wild game in the junior college final four at Hutchinson, Kansas Thursday night.

You got the feeling when Triton got an easy layup off the game's opening tip that it could be a long night for the Cowboys and, indeed, nothing went right for Connors in the first half. The Trojans lit it up from beyond the arc going 7-of-14 while the Cowboys opened the game going 1-for-10 from the field and fell behind by 18 points in the opening 10 minutes. But they slowly started to make their way back.

Connors managed to cut the deficit down to 14 points, 51-37, at halftime despite shooting just 38 percent from the field and 1-for-7 in the 3-point department. and the Cowboys, already playing short-handed, lost their hammer inside as Buddy Hammer got into foul trouble and had to sit the last part of the half and was in and out in the second half before eventually fouling out late in the game. But credit redshirt sophomore Sayid Burnside who came in and contributed 15 points off the bench along with nine boards.

The Cowboys started finding the range from outside, hitting six treys in the second half, while cooling the Trojans down and with Bradyn Hubbard, Tony Green, Khamani Cooper and Burnside carrying most of the load, continued to whittle down the margin until they finally tied the game at 81-all with 3:17 to play. It was tied again at 82 with 2:57 left before the Trojans converted four free throws over the next minute to make it 86-82.

Hubbard hit a pair of charities to get back to within two and Triton missed a pair of free throws with 1:04 left to give Cinderella a chance to dance some more. But Green, the best free throw shooter on the team, missed two charities. However, the Cowboys corralled the rebound and worked it around for a three-point try by Donyae May that was off the mark. Triton rebounded and the Cowboys fouled with 17 seconds left. Dior Conners hit 1-of-2 free throws for the Trojans. The Cowboys brought the ball down the floor but a hurried three by Cooper was off the mark and the clock struck midnight for the Cowboys.

For veteran coach Bill Muse, it was his fourth trip to the national semifinals, the first since 2009, and he had nothing but praise for his squad that finished the year 34-3, the most wins in a season for a Muse-coached team.

"Give Triton credit because they shot lights out in that first half, and we knew they could shoot those just like Hutch. But the difference was Triton hit theirs and Hutch didn't. We had to play four straight days and Triton had a first-round bye, so I think that took its toll on us tonight," said Muse. "Nobody gave us a chance to be here, but we beat three nationally ranked teams to get here. I'm so proud of their effort tonight and all season long and when you go 34-3 it's had to complain about anything. I told the guys not to judge the season just on this one game."

Cooper was the leading scorer for Connors with 22 points including four treys while Hubbard had 21 and a dozen rebounds, and Green added 18. The Trojans were led by Amar Aguillard who led all scorers with 26 points including six 3-pointers with the Trojans netting 12 treys for the game. Triton will face top-ranked Barton College for the NJCAA championship on Saturday.