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Lady Tigers one win shyof making national tournamentDarin Spence knows what it takes to earn a tripto the National Junior College Athletic Associationbasketball tournament.He has done it twice previously with women'steams at Butler County Community College.So when his Lady Tigers went into the championshipgame of the Region VI Tournament againstCoffey ville with a 32-1 record, it was pretty clearwhat had to be done.But it didn't happen.Cowley was ice-cold shooting the ball and theRed Ravens turned the tables, winning 70-50 forthe right to go to Salina and the national tournament."We made a heckuva run with all new facesthrown together," said Spence, in his first year backat Cowley and his first as the school's headwomen's coach. "The big thing that happened to uswas our road through the tournament and the depthof the kids we play. We definitely had the toughestroad with Kansas City, Independence, andCoffeyville. Our two guards played 45 minutes (40plus five in overtime) against Indy and had to turnaround and play the next day."Excuses? No. Cowley did just about everythingSpence asked until the night of March 10. Still, afinal record of 32-2, a No. 8 national ranking, and aJayhawk Conference East Division championship( 17-1 ) are pretty impressive statistics, given the factthat Spence inherited three sophomores from lastyear's team and didn't get to campus until April 1."After you get past the disappointment of losingin the (Region VI) finals, which may be in afew weeks, I'll look back and say yeah, that waspretty good," Spence said.Cowley blistered nearly every opponent enroute to its first conference championship since1989. The Lady Tigers beat their opponents by anaverage of 25 points per game. Only a 69-62 loss toNeosho on Jan. 28 prevented a perfect regular season."We had some challenges," said Spence, votedCoach of the Year in the Jayhawk East, "but we'dturn them into double-digit wins. Seward wentthrough the (Jayhawk) West undefeated and thesame thing happened to them."I thought the league was down this year. Wehad a good group, but with 1 1 new coaches out of19, that's going to happen."The 32 victories set a single-season record,breaking the old mark of28 (28-4) set in 1987. Italso was the least numberof losses in a single seasonand marked the fifthtime in the 1 990s thatCowley's women havewon at least 20 games.Some individualplayers also stood out.Three players averaged indouble figures, led bysophomore ZakiyyahJohnson at 15.9.Sophomore MoneekeBowden averaged 13.2,while Jayhawk EastFreshman of the YearDarinSpenceAyeshia Smith averaged 13.1 points per game."Some of our freshmen did some good thingsfor us," Spence said. "We've got some shooters andour point guard back. Ayeshia is a great pointguard."Spence said having a season with the freshmenwill help those players know what is expected ofthem next season."We believe in weightlifting and conditioning,"he said. "We don't have what I call giggle basketballhere. Yeah, we have a good time, but we're onthe court to win games."Bowden and Smith earned All-Region VI honors.Bowden and Johnson were named to the All-Jayhawk East team, while Smith, Shay Jackson,and Brandi Harris were honorable mention selections.Jackson led Cowley in rebounding, whileHarris was the fourth-leading scorer at 8.2 pergame.Strong finish pleasesmen's basketball coachThe men's basketball team won 25 games,including a school-record 14 in the conference,earned its coach his100th victory at the school, andendured adversity, both on and off the court, duringthe1997-98 season.Still, Coach Mark Nelson said the Tigers fellshort of their goal."We were pleased with how we finished themore on page 33