SALINA – The No. 2 Hutchinson Community College women’s basketball team’s run at a national championship and undefeated season fell just short of completion on Saturday night at the Bicentennial Center – and it took the No. 1 team in the nation to give the Lady Dragons their first loss of the season.
Trinity Valley hit nine 3-point field goals and rode a wave of karma which started in a pregame ceremony that honored the architect of that program’s current run of success to win its sixth national championship in a 69-55 victory over the Lady Dragons in the 2012 NJCAA Women’s Division I Tournament championship game.
Hutchinson completes its best season in the program’s 38-year history at 36-1, as the Jayhawk West and Region VI champion and as the national runner-up, its best finish in three national tournament berths.
“I told our team that I was proud of each and every one of them for what they have accomplished this season and for what they have done for our program,” HCC head coach John Ontjes said.
Added sophomore Chelsea Small: “This is one of the worst feelings (losing in the finals), but we had a great year. We can’t hold our heads down. We have so many records. We can be excited about where we got and how we competed.”
Sophomores Laura Patrick (55 points, 23 rebounds in the tournament), Small (40 points, 28 rebounds) and Jackie Patterson (64 points, 31 rebounds) were named to the All-Tournament team.
“We took it all the way to the end and just came up short,” Patterson said.
The Lady Dragons faced their largest halftime deficit of the season – HCC trailed at half only three times in 2011-12 – thanks in part to the torrid 3-point shooting of tournament MVP Keuna Flax, who buried 5 of Trinity Valley’s 6 first-half 3-pointers in building a 37-25 lead by halftime.
“A lot of it was my fault with how we game-planned,” Ontjes said. “They are a very good team and instead of being aggressive and doing what we did all year long, we came out and played a passive zone. They got off to a great start and it was an uphill battle the rest of the way.”
The Cardinals (36-0) wound up hitting 9 of 20 from 3-point range and built leads as large as 20 points in the second half. Hutchinson held Trinity Valley to just seven field goals in the second half – albeit three were 3-pointers – and fought back to within seven points at 62-55 with 2:36 to play on a Chelsea Small 3-pointer.
“It’s really hard to come back when you are down by that much,” Small said. “We were never really out of it. We all wanted it really bad. It seemed like they hit every single shot (in the first half).”
Trinity Valley scored the final seven points of the game to clinch the national title. The Cardinals were 15 of 18 from the free-throw line in the second half.
Patrick led Hutchinson in scoring with 17 points and a game-high eight rebounds. Patterson finished with 15 points and four boards. Small had eight points and sophomore Alysse Barlow finished with seven points, seven assists and four rebounds.
The Lady Dragons, held under 60 points for only the fourth time in 37 games this season, shot 33.9 percent from the field (19 of 56), including 5 of 17 from 3-point range and 12 of 19 from the free-throw line. HCC had 20 turnovers against Trinity Valley’s pressure defense.
“We were struggling with their full-court pressure and we weren’t making some shots and they made their shots,” Patrick said. “Coach Ontjes kept one motivating us and we had some players step up and make some big plays.”
Flax finished with 21 points, shooting 5 of 9 from 3-point range, to lead Trinity Valley. She also had five rebounds, three steals and two assists. Breanna Lewis hit 4 of 8 3-pointers and finished with 14 points. Starr Breedlove had 12 points, five assists and four steals.
Trinity Valley shot 39.6 percent for the game (21 of 53) and 18 of 24 from the free-throw line. The Cardinals committed 16 turnovers and had a slight 35-34 rebounding advantage on the Lady Dragons.
“You have to give (Trinity Valley) a lot of credit,” Ontjes said. “The have great athleticism, they have shooters, they have great inside presence and they defend. They made it very difficult for us to score.”
After Trinity Valley’s Lewis and HCC’s Patrick traded 3-point goals, Hutchinson trailed 9-7 with 16:52 to play in the opening half. That’s when Flax went on her tear with four-straight 3-pointers, which quieted the largely partisan Hutchinson crown. When Jenea Barrett scored with 13:00 minutes to go, Trinity Valley led 23-12.
Hutchinson fought back with five-straight points from Barlow – two free throws and her first 3-pointer of the national tournament – to pull within 23-17 with 10:12 to play. HCC went cold from the field as Trinity Valley went on an 11-1 run to lead 32-18 with 6:00 to go in the half.
Flax nailed her fifth 3-pointer of the game to give HCC its largest deficit of the season at 15 points (35-20) with 5:14 to go. Patrick hit a 3-pointer and had a putback to pull within 10, but Alice Robinson scored with 2:55 to play to give the Cardinals a 37-25 lead. Neither team scored for the final 2 1/2 minutes of the first half.
Trinity Valley had the best single half shooting against Hutchinson this season, shooting 48.3 percent (14 of 29), while HCC shot 36.0 percent (9 of 25).
In Hutchinson’s first three national tournament games, the Lady Dragons owned the start of the second half in victories over Meridian, Walters State and Central Arizona. In the championship game, Trinity Valley started the second half on a 12-4 run to lead 49-29 with 13:48 to play after two Sha’Kayla Caples free throws.
The Lady Dragons trimmed that deficit down to 13 after a Jasmine Patterson bucket with 8:37 to play, but HCC was in the midst of a one field goal over a stretch of 5 1/2 minutes. Trinity Valley reclaimed a 20-point lead at 62-42 after a Caples inside basket.
Hutchinson had one more run left in them and the Bicentennial Center once again became alive. HCC scored 13 unanswered points over the next 2 minutes, 14 seconds.
Jackie Patterson started the run with a conventional three-point play to trim the lead to 62-45. Patrick and Small combined for three free throws and then Lanicia Lawrence scored after a Barlow steal to trim the margin to 62-50 with 3:23 to play.
Barlow’s short jumper with 3:12 to go pulled the Lady Dragons within 10 and when Small drilled a 3-pointer from the left side with 2:36 to play, Hutchinson trailed 62-55. That’s where the comeback ended as Trinity Valley hit five-straight free throws and Breedlove scored in transition to finish off the scoring.
“We never gave up,” Ontjes said. “We fought until the end.”
“We never felt like we were out of the game,” Lawrence said. “They stopped some of our main players and we weren’t expecting that kind of pressure.”
Before the championship game, the court at the Bicentennial Center was named in honor of the late Kurt Budke, a Salina native and coach of Trinity Valley’s first four national championships. In November, Budke, the head coach at Oklahoma State University, assistant coach Miranda Serna and two others were killed in a plane crash.
Flax, the only Texan on the Trinity Valley roster, played for Budke at Oklahoma State before injuries slowed her career and she transferred to Trinity Valley.
GAME NOTES – The Lady Dragons are now 7-5 in three NJCAA Tournaments. … The 2012 sophomores finish their HCC careers with a record of 66-4. … Jackie Patterson finishes fifth in career scoring (917 points), third in career rebounding (537 rebounds), second in career blocked shots (83), 17th in single-season scoring (460 points), third in single-season rebounds (291 rebounds) and third in single-season blocked shots (45). … Alysse Barlow finishes 15th in career scoring (780 points), third in career assists (309), first in career steals (177), fourth in single-season assists (171) and second in single-season steals (97). … Laura Patrick finishes 11th in single-season points (481 points) and is sixth in single-season blocked shots (38). … Chelsea Small finishes first in career blocked shots (96), eighth in single-season rebounds (263) and first in single-season blocked shots (64). … HCC sets a new single-season team scoring record, averaging 77.4 points per game this season. … HCC’s 50.8 point defensive average ranks fifth best in team history. … HCC completes the 2011-12 season with an all-time record of 779-380.
(By Steve Carpenter, HCC Sports Information Director)