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Connors State College

Cowboys Overcome Offensive Struggles for OCAC Win

An ugly win is better than a bad loss.

Cowboys Overcome Offensive Struggles for OCAC Win
Recap Box Score
January 23, 2025

Warner, OK- "An ugly win is better than a bad loss."

That's how Connors State head basketball coach Bill Muse summed up his team's 60-56 win over Northern-Enid Thursday night at Melvin Self Fieldhouse.

Despite being outscored by 24 points from beyond the arc and connecting on just 3-of-9 charity shots, the Cowboys found a way to pull out the victory. Big 6-9 center Edwin Daniel was the hero for the Cowboys as he scored 20 points, all in the second half including the game clincher in the final seconds.

The game started slowly with the Cowboys (14-2. 2-2) crawling to a 4-0 lead in the first four minutes of the game and had only a dozen points on the board at the eight-minute mark of the half, but Northern was equally as cold with just 11 points. Connors finished the half on a 21-12 run to lead by 10 at intermission.

The Jets (12-7, 1-5) slowly whittled away at the Connors lead in the second half before taking a short-lived 47-45 lead with eight minutes to play. Daniel kept the Cowboys in the game as he dominated the paint down the stretch. Connors was clinging to a 58-54 lead with 1:30 to play when the Jet's Preston Murphy, who led Northern with 24 points, hit a bucket with a minute to play to make it 58-56. It remained that way until Murphy missed a 3-point attempt and Daniel was fouled on the rebound with 8.9 seconds left. After the inbounds pass, the Jets quickly fouled Aric Walls with 7.6 seconds left. Walls missed the front end of a 1-and- but Daniel grabbed the rebound and put it back in for the final margin.

"We were ugly on offense to start the game and despite their 3-point shooting I thought we played pretty good defense, but we've got to get more than 60 points out of our offense," said Muse.

The Cowboys have a quick turnaround as they travel to Tonkawa on Saturday afternoon to take on the Mavericks in a Game that was postponed on Monday due to winter weather in Tonkawa. Tipoff is scheduled for 3:00pm inside Foster Piper Fieldhouse.