by Steve Carpenter, HCC Sports Information
Freshman point guard Inja Butina put the Hutchinson Community College women’s basketball team on her back on Monday night and carried the Blue Dragons to sole possession of first place in the Jayhawk Conference.
Butina scored a career-high 28 points to lead the eighth-ranked Blue Dragons to a 77-70 victory over Garden City at the Sports Arena. Entering play on Monday the Blue Dragons and Broncbusters were tied for first place in the conference standings.
After winning its 12th-consecutive game on Monday, Hutchinson (22-1) is now 12-1 in league play. The Dragons lead Garden City by one game and Coffeyville by two games in the conference standings. Coffeyville lost at Barton on Monday night. The Blue Dragons have another short turnaround by traveling to Dodge City on Wednesday night.
Butina matched Kirea Rogers for the most points scored by a Blue Dragon this season with her 28-point effort. She hit 10 of 16 total shots, knocking down 3 of 6 from the 3-point line and 5 of 7 from the free-throw line. HCC’s freshman point guard dished out six more assists to move into a tie for seventh place with Alysse Barlow (2012) on HCC’s single-season assist list. She chipped in three steals and three rebounds.
Back-to-back Butina 3-pointers in the second quarter capped off a key 11-0 HCC run that saw the Blue Dragons extend a three-point to 14 at 38-24 with 4:18 to play in the second quarter.
Garden City whittled away at the Blue Dragons and finally made it a one possession game at 71-68 with 3:03 to play. HCC answered the challenge when freshman Taylor Stahly knocked home her fifth 3-pointer of the game that started a run of six unanswered points to put the Broncbusters away.
Rogers finished with 19 points on 7 of 11 free-throw shooting and eight rebounds. Stahly hit 5 of 10 3-pointers and finished with 15 points. Lakin Preisner added nine points and five rebounds.
The Blue Dragons finished the game at 48.1 percent shooting (25 of 52), hitting 9 of 18 3-pointers and 18 of 26 from the free-throw line. The Blue Dragons were out-rebounded for the fourth time this season, 36-29. HCC had 12 turnovers.
Jayhawk Conference scoring leader Shala Dobbins had 19 points, going 11 of 13 on the free-throw line. She was 4 of 11 shooting from the floor. DeRae Lewis had 18 points and seven rebounds.
The Broncbusters shot 24 of 54 (44.4 percent), hitting 5 of 16 from 3-point range, but just 1 of 6 in the second half. The Busters were 17 of 23 from the free-throw line. Garden City had 15 turnovers.
The Blue Dragons built an early 10-4 lead, but Garden City hit three 3-pointers in the opening quarter to keep things close. The Blue Dragons hit 9 of 14 shots in the first quarter. With 1 second remaining in the quarter, Butina found a cutting Rogers for a buzzer-beating basket that gave Hutchinson a 23-19 lead after one quarter.
Leading 27-24 early in the second, Preisner’s 3-pointer with 6:43 to go started a Blue Dragon 11-point run with all the points coming from Preisner and Butina. When Butina hit her second-straight trey, HCC’s lead ballooned to 38-24 with 4:18 to go in the half. Leading 40-31, Butina sprinted the length of the floor and completed a three-point play with 5 seconds to play in the half, but Garden City’s Dominque Maxwell went the other way and scored as the buzzer sounded and Hutch led 43-33 at halftime.
The Blue Dragons continually answered Garden City challenges in the second half. A Maxwell 3-pointer with 6:51 to play in the third cut the HCC lead to 50-43. Three-pointers by Butina and Stahly started a 10-2 run. A Rogers’ bucket with 4:43 to play gave Hutch a 60-45 lead.
A Dobbins three-point play with 8:45 to play in the fourth quarter again pulled Garden City within 64-60. Stahly again hit a big 3-pointer and with Butina’s free throws at the 7:22 mark, Hutch extended its lead back to 69-60.
The Busters got four-straight points from Lewis to make it a one-possession game with 3:03 to go at 71-68. Again the Hutch answer came from Stahly, who knocked down a 3-pointer with 2:35 to go. Butina hit 1 of 2 free throws and Rogers scored and Garden City went scoreless for 3 full minutes down the stretch to close out Hutchinson’s victory.
GAME NOTES – HCC has not lost a game played on the Sports Arena floor in the last 131 games. … HCC is now 63-18 all-time vs. Garden City, including 36-4 at the Sports Arena. … HCC head coach John Ontjes has 249 wins at Hutchinson. … Taylor Stahly is now in sole possession of second place on the freshman 3-point list with 80. She tied Heather Robben (2010) for fifth place on the single-season 3-point list. … Kirea Rogers moved into a tie for sixth with Amy Nudson (1993) and Kalani Purcell (2014) on the freshman free throw list with 96. … HCC is now 20-0 when leading after three quarters. … The Dragons are 3-1 when out-rebounded. … This was Taylor Stahly’s 10th game of five or more 3-point field goals.
(HCC Sports Information)