Jessi Cowden Seals Huge Win for Midland with Three-Pointer

NSR  JUCO basketball prospect, Jessi Cowden, from Midland College in Midland, Tex, was left almost speechless.  But, that’s all right because the 5’10” shooting guard let her play do most of the talking in a 63-61 victory against Odessa College. Cowden not only hit a clutch 3-pointer late in the game but hit two critical free throws with 12.6 seconds remaining to help the No. 11 nationally-ranked Lady Chaparrals clinch the outright Western Junior College Athletic Conference championship against their bitter rivals at a raucous Chaparral Center.

“There’s so much adrenalin going through my body right now because I’m just so excited to win that game and be conference champs,” said Cowden, the sophomore guard from Tomball. “We won it last year but it was so much more exciting to play rival Odessa for it. I’m also upset because this is my last game here and I’m going to miss everyone here. This has become a second home for me and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”

Cowden and teammate Nety Sousa finished with 15 points each and Ornela Bachinni added 10 for MC (25-5, 10-2), which will go into the NJCAA Region V Tournament at Lubbock Christian University as the No. 1 seed and will play the No. 4 seed out of the North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference.

“This was a game of many short runs,” MC coach Ron Jones said. “When it looked like we had a chance to separate, they came back. And then when they went up a little bit, we came back. It was just typical of the last few games we’ve had. We showed a lot of character there at the end. Jessi hit a big 3-pointer and hit two big free throws and that’s what you expect a sophomore to do. Odessa has really gotten better as the year has gone on and they should do well in the regional tournament.”

Odessa College (18-11, 8-4), which was picked by the WJCAC coaches to finish fifth in the preseason poll, moves on as the No. 2 seed and will play the NTJCAC’s No. 3 seed at noon Thursday, March 3. The Lady Wranglers were led by J’Tierra Brown with a game-high 17 points and Telisha Joe with 15.

The game was tight the entire 40 minutes of play. The teams were tied at 29 at the half and the biggest lead in the game was by MC, 43-35, early in the second half.

But when the game was on the line, the Lady Chaps seemed to lean on their three sophomores. Two of them combined for probably the biggest play of the game with less than a minute remaining. After MC’s Lindsay Ansley missed the back end of a one-and-one opportunity, both teams scrambled for the loose ball. MC’s Tanica Anderson finally grabbed the ball right underneath the basket and as she was falling out of bounds, she found Cowden at the top of the key and then Cowden hit a 3 to give MC a 61-59 lead with 57 seconds left.

“The game is going by so fast that when you get the opportunity, you just shoot it,” Cowden said. “When I made it, I thought we had won the game because everybody was cheering for me. That pass by Tanica was spectacular. That was a great play to get the ball to me and it was clutch, and we needed that.”

The game was tied at 61 after Brown’s layup and then OC had an opportunity to take the lead but Kiaherra Powell was called for a foul on Cowden while battling for a loose ball on OC’s end of the court. Cowden calmly sank her free throws with 12.6 seconds remaining for the 63-61 advantage.

“I didn’t even know what was going through my mind,” Cowden said. “Not making them wasn’t an option. And that helped us win the game. I’m almost speechless because it’s so overwhelming.”

OC still had one last shot and there was no doubt the Lady Wranglers were going for the win. Joe found Takoia Larry on the right wing, but her 3-point attempt hit the back of the iron and Ansley came up with the rebound to seal the victory and the league title.

Jessi’s NSR scout is Alan Driggers, Area Director for Southeast Texas.

Note:  This story was taken from and partly paraphrased from an article written by Oscar LeRoy for myWestTexas.com.  http://www.mywesttexas.com/sports/article_1095870c-40ae-11e0-8f24-001cc4c03286.html