[ By STEVE CARPENTER ]
[ BLUE DRAGON SPORTS INFORMATION ]
COLBY, Kan. — Trailing by three points at halftime on Sunday, reaching a milestone was the last thing on Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball head coach Steve Eck’s mind.
But the 15th-ranked Blue Dragons survived two players fouling out to really and defeat Colby 67-62 on Sunday at the Colby Community Building to give Eck not one, but two milestones.
Eck reached Blue Dragon victory No. 250 on Sunday, doing so in game No. 300. He now needs just 10 more wins to become Hutchinson’s all-time winningest coach in program history. Sundays’ victory was also the 900th of Eck’s head coaching career of 39 years at all levels. Those 900 wins cover his time at Hutchinson, Cowley, Redlands, Butler County, Wichita South and Jardine Junior High, where is career started.
Sunday’s victory was crucial to the Blue Dragons’ Jayhawk Conference title changes. Now 19-4 overall, the Dragons are 15-4 in the KJCCC and maintain a second-place tie with Coffeyville in the league standings, just one game behind front-runner Barton.
The Blue Dragons defeated Colby despite a season-low offensive output of 67 points. Hutchinson survived two substantial scoreless droughts in the game. The Dragons had just two points over a 5 1/2 minute stretch of the first half. Colby also outscored the Dragons 11-4 to close out the first half to lead 31-28 at intermission. With the game tied at 38, in the second half, both teams went scoreless for 4 minutes.
Trailing 41-40 with 11:10 to play in the game, the Blue Dragon took charge with a 13-2 run that was capped by three Devonte Bandoofree throws after he was fouled on a 3-point attempt. Hutch led 53-43 with 7:57 to play in the game.
Sophomore J.J. Rhymes scored a team-high 20 points with seven rebounds and three assists to lead the Blue Dragons on Sunday.
Bandoo joined the Blue Dragon Career Top 25 scoring club with 17 points, three rebounds and three assists.
James Rojas came off the bench to score 13 points with three rebounds. Sal Nuhu had six points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots.
The Blue Dragons shot 23 of 57 overall (40.4 percent), going 1 of 12 from 3-point range and 20 of 27 from the free-throw line. The one 3-pointer was a season low for Hutchinson. The Dragons out-rebounded Colby 48-28.
David Hall had a game-high 23 points to lead Colby on 10 of 17 shooting. Xavier Smith and Ty Dalton had 11 each.
The Trojans were 24 of 64 shooting (37.5 percent), going 3 of 20 from 3-point range and 11 of 24 from the foul line. The Trojans were 5 of 14 in the second half. Hutchinson held Colby 18 points under its season scoring average.
The Blue Dragons outscored Colby 39-31 in the second half.
Hutchinson plays host to Garden City at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the Sports Arena to open a two-game homestand.