Sophomores Chelsea Small posted her first career double-double and All-American Jackie Patterson had her seventh career double-double to lead the seventh-ranked Hutchinson Community College women’s basketball team to a 106-40 blowout victory over Hesston College in the season-opening Quarterback Classic on Friday night at the Sports Arena.
HCC’s 106-point output tied for the second-most points scored in team history. The 66-point margin of victory was the sixth-largest in team history. The Lady Dragons tied an opening game record with 106 points scored, matching last year’s output against the Tabor College JV.
Now 31-7 in season openers, the Lady Dragons won their 11th straight on opening night. More impressive, Hutchinson is 34-4 in home openers.
HCC has also won 20-straight games against the Larks (1-1)
“I thought it was a great performance by our ball club tonight,” Ontjes said. “The only thing that we can glaringly improve on was free-throw shooting. That will hopefully improve as we get more games under our belt.”
Small led six HCC players scoring in double figures with 17 points and 11 rebounds. She was 6 of 8 shooting with a pair of 3-pointers. Small added three blocks and two steals.
Patterson had 13 points and 10 boards with three assists, three blocks and three steals.
Sophomore Laura Patrick, making her HCC debut after transferring from Sterling College, scored 12 points on 4 of 5 3-point shooting. Redshirt freshman Jasmine Patterson had 11 points, six rebounds and four steals. Sophomores Kara Lee and Lanicia Lawrence had 10 points each.
Hutchinson (1-0) shot 47.6 percent from the field (39 of 82), including 9 of 20 from 3-point range and 19 of 32 from the free-throw line. The Lady Dragons outrebounded Hesston 56-42.
HCC forced 30 Larks’ turnovers, converting them into 37 points.
The NJCAA’s top scoring defense from 2010 picked right up where it left off last season as the Lady Dragons limited Hesston to 21.4 percent shooting (12 of 56), 5 of 17 from 3-point range and 11 of 18 from the foul line.
Marissa Vermillion and Mishaun Pfannenstiel had 12 points each to lead the Lady Dragons.
The Lady Dragons scored the first nine points of the game and led 23-1 7½ minutes into the game. Hesston didn’t get its first field goal until 11:36 mark, a Kirsten Myers 3-pointer. Hutch led 52-17 at halftime.
Hutchinson had four different scoring runs of nine, 12, 14 and nine points in the game. HCC outscored Hesston 54-23 in the second half.
HCC will now play Labette at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday in the Quarterback Classic.
GAME NOTES – HCC now has 11 100-point games in team history. Seven have been under head coach John Ontjes. … HCC’s biggest lead of the game was 68 points at 104-36). … HCC’s school single-game scoring record is 108. … The Lady Dragons had 28 assists on 39 makes. Sophomore Alysse Barlow had seven assists with nine Lady Dragons posting at least one assists. … HCC is 21-1 vs. Hesston College all time. … Pratt defeated Labette 71-51 earlier on Friday.