[ By STEVE CARPENTER ]
[ BLUE DRAGON SPORTS INFORMATION ]
Much like Secretariat did to Sham in the 1973 Belmont Stakes, the No. 1-ranked Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team just kept pulling away from No. 14 Coffeyville on Tuesday night at the Sports Arena.
Secretariat won the 1973 Belmont by 31 lengths. The Blue Dragons rousted the Red Ravens by 38 points, winning 99-62 in Hutchinson’s first home game in two weeks. The margin of victory was the second-largest in series history.
The Blue Dragons improve to 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the Jayhawk Conference heading into Saturday’s road game at Neosho County. Coffeyville falls to 7-1 and 4-1.
The Blue Dragons shot nearly 55 percent and held Coffeyville to just six field goals in the first half as Hutchinson opened up a 48-24 halftime lead. Hutchinson shot nearly 59 percent in a 51-point second half and built leads as large as 37 points late in the game.
J.J. Rhymes scored a game-high 21 points on 7 of 12 shooting to lead the Blue Dragons, who shot 56.9 percent for the game (37 of 65).
Rob Whitfield scored 15 of his 20 points in the first-half surge. Whitfield knocked down a season-high 4 3-pointers on 7 attempts.
Devonte Bandoo had 20 points on 8 of 12 shooting. Bandoo added five assists and three steals..
James Rojas added 11 points and Curtis Hollis added eight off the bench for the Dragons.
Hutch hit 5 of 12 3-pointers and 20 of 27 from the free-throw line. The Blue Dragons out-rebounded Coffeyville 51-28. The Dragons did have 17 turnovers.
Coffeyville shot a season-low 27.3 percent from the field (18 of 66), going 4 of 20 from long range and 22 of 37 from the free-throw line. The Red Ravens had 13 turnovers.
T.J. Washington had a team-high 13 points to lead the Ravens.
The Dragons trailed 9-4 after a Washington 3-pointer with 16:03 to play in the first half. Hutch then went on an 11-0 run over the next 3 minutes, 18 seconds. Hutch took a 10-9 lead on a Rheaquone Taylor basket with 14:46 left. The run ended on a Rojas basket with 13:50 to play that gave the Dragons a 15-9 lead.
A Whitfield 3-pointer pushed the lead to nine at 20-11 with 10:40 to go in the half. And hit double figures for the first time at 22-12 with a Rhymes jumper with 9:52 remaining. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Whitfield and Bandoo edged the Dragons out to a 33-18 lead with 6:08 to go.
A second 11-0 scoring run gave the Dragons a 41-18 lead on a rhymes layup with 3:49 to go. Hutchinson had leads as large as 26 points in the opening 20 minutes before going to the locker room leading 48-24. The Dragons were 17 of 31 shooting from the floor with four 3-pointers. Coffeyville was just 6 of 23 shooting.
The smallest the Hutchinson lead got in the second half was 23 points in the first minute. The advantage reached 30 for the first time at the 9:44 mark when a Bandoo free throw gave the Dragons a 75-45 lead. It reached a game-high 37 on a Rhymes layup with 3:10 left as Hutchinson built a 90-53 lead.
Hutchinson connected on 20 of 34 shots in the second half (58.8 percent). Coffeyville was 12 of 38 (31.6 percent).
Dragons dominate paint
[ By STEVE CARPENTER ]
[ BLUE DRAGON SPORTS INFORMATION ]
Led by freshman Jada Mickens, the No. 12 Hutchinson Community College women’s basketball team dominated Coffeyville in the paint Tuesday night and reached the .500 mark in conference play.
Mickens became the third Blue Dragon in program history with a 20-rebound game and the Blue Dragons defeated the Red Ravens 63-53 at the Sports Arena.
Hutchinson improves to 4-2 overall and evens its record at 2-2 in the Jayhawk Conference. Hutchinson is back on the road Saturday at Neosho County. Coffeyville falls to 4-4 and 2-1 in the conference.
Mickens grabbed 20 rebounds to lead the Blue Dragons to a 55-30 rebounding advantage. Mickens joins Kalani Purcell (22 rebounds in 2015) and Ariella McGhee (20 rebounds in 2009) as the only Blue Dragon players in history to reach the 20-rebound plateau.
Mickens, who scored eight points, and Dejanae Roebuck did most of the damage for the Dragons. Roebuck posted her third double-double of the season with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
The Dragons owned a 32-18 advantage in the paint. Hutch grabbed 20 offensive rebounds. Defensively, Hutchinson blocked eight shots, three each from Mickens and Roebuck.
Over all, the Blue Dragons shot 36.1 percent from the floor (22 of 61), including 3 of 14 from 3-point range and 16 of 23 from the free throw line. The Dragons still had turnover issues with 19 – Coffeyville outscored Hutch 23-8 in points off turnovers.
Tia Bradshaw was Hutchinson’s leading scorer with 17 points and six assists. Coretta Hopkins had nine points and Alicia Brown added eight points and seven boards.
Hutchinson held a second-straight opponent to less than 30 percent shooting as Coffeyville was held to 26.3 percent (15 of 57). The Ravens hit 6 of 19 3-pointers and 17 of 24 from the foul line. Coffeyville committed only nine turnovers.
Kaylee Brown had 15 points to lead the Ravens. Lucy Burke and Nalon Smith had 11 points each.
Trailing 12-11 late in the first quarter, Hopkins scored in the paint with 1:38 remaining in the first quarter to give Hutch a 13-12 lead. That play sparked a 6-0 run to end the first quarter. A Roebuck jumper with 13 seconds to play in the period gave the Dragons a 17-12 lead, 14 of those points coming in the paint as Hutch shot 53.3 percent in the opening period.
That scoring run was extended to 12-0 on a Brown 3-pointer with 8:50 to play in the second and Hutchinson led 23-12. The Ravens hit a free throw to stop the run with 8:50 remaining in the second and didn’t score a field goal for better than 4 minutes as the Dragons took a 25-13 lead on a Hopkins layup with 7:57 to play. Hutch held Coffeyville to 2 of 12 shooting in the second period and took a 36-23 lead at halftime.
The Blue Dragons outscored Coffeyville 8-4 over the first 5 minutes of the third quarter and built a game-high 17 point lead when Tia Bradshaw hit 1 of 2 free throws with 4:52 to play to give Hutch a 44-27 lead. Turnovers started to plague the Dragons late in the third quarter. A Brown 3-pointer cut the Dragon lead to 49-38 with 1:06 remaining in the third. Her two free throws with 1 second left in the third, cut the Dragon down to 51-41. Hutch was 2 of 13 shooting in the third quarter.
The lead shrunk to eight in the first 38 seconds of the final quarter, but a Brown layup and Tia Bradshaw 3-pointer over the next 50 seconds pushed the lead back to 13 at 56-43 with 8:35 to go. Both teams went scoreless for nearly 3 full minutes and the lead dwindled to 10 on Burke’s three-point play with 4:09 to go. The Dragons scored four in a row on layups by Sara Cramer and Tia Bradshaw to go up 62-48 with 2:36 to play.