WICHITA, Kan. — Intrust Bank Arena will be abuzz this week with open practices and the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament Midwest region. The University of Kansas drew a 1-seed and will play the 16-seed Quakers of Penn on Thursday at 1 p.m.

The Jayhawks will have open practice on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. Check out fan information below:

 

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HUTCHINSON, Kan. — When No. 14 Hutchinson Community College (28-6) dropped a heartbreaker in Hartman last week to Region VI Champion Coffeyville, there was some uncertainty if the defending National Champions would get the opportunity to repeat.

That question was answered with Selection Monday from NJCAA TV.

Hutchinson was named the 11-seed and will draw 22-seed Cape Fear (21-11) Tuesday, March 20, at noon. The winner of that game will play the 6-seed Buccaneers of Florida SouthWestern State Wednesday, March 21, at 8 p.m.

Hutchinson beat Barton (27-6) 74-69 in the Region VI semis. However, the Cougars, who spent much of the season atop the Jayhawk Conference standings, received the 16-seed in The Tournament. Barton will open tournament action on Monday against the 17-seed Apaches of Tyler (28-6).

Kansas and Florida each have three teams coming to the Sports Arena.

Hutchinson, Coffeyville and Barton will represent the Sunflower State; while Northwest Florida State, Eastern Florida State and Florida SouthWestern State will rep the Sunshine State.

Coffeyville (29-4) is the 5-seed and will face the winner of the Connors State/Central Georgia Tech matchup. The Red Ravens play Wednesday, March 21, at 2 p.m.

Four teams from Texas made The Tournament: Odessa, Trinity Valley, South Plains and Tyler.

 

 

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[ By STEVE CARPENTER ]

[ BLUE DRAGON SPORTS INFORMATION ]

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson Community College women’s basketball team got the news it had been waiting for since last Tuesday when the Blue Dragons received an at-large bid for the 2018 NJCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Tournament on Monday.

The team found out together watching the NJCAA Selection Show in the George Killian Room at the Sports Arena on Monday.

The Blue Dragons (27-6) earned the No. 18 seed in the tournament and will play No. 15-seed San Jacinto-North in an opening-round game at 2 p.m. on Monday, March 19 at the Rip Griffin Center on the campus of Lubbock Christian University.

The Blue Dragons will be making their eighth NJCAA Tournament appearance, the seventh under head coach John Ontjes and first as an at-large team.

The Blue Dragons finished tied for second in the Jayhawk Conference this season with Independence. The Dragons advanced to the Region VI semifinals for the 10th consecutive season before being eliminated in the semifinal round by the Pirates.

The Blue Dragons had two long winning streaks that put them in position to earn an at-large bid.

Hutch drops its first two games of league play to eventual conference and region VI champion Seward County and Cloud County, but reeled off 13-consecutive wins. After a two-game losing streak in mid-February put Hutch’s tournament hopes on thin ice, the Blue Dragons went on another seven-game win streak and finished No. 19 in the final NJCAA Division I rankings of the season.

[ By STEVE CARPENTER ]

[ BLUE DRAGON SPORTS INFORMATION ]

PARK CITY, Kan. — The waiting game begins for the Hutchinson Community College Men’s Basketball Team.

Playing in their sixth-straight Region VI Tournament championship game, the No. 14 Blue Dragons had a one-point lead over No. 10 Coffeyville with 55 seconds remaining on Wednesday night at Hartman Arena. The Blue Dragons misfired twice in the final minute and Coffeyville repeated as Region VI champions with an 82-80 victory.

The Blue Dragons fall to 28-6 overall and now must wait until selection Monday to see if they receive one of the eight at-large bids available into the 24-team NJCAA National Tournament, which begins on Monday, March 19 at the Sports Arena.

Last year, Coffeyville defeated Hutchinson in overtime in the Region VI Tournament championship game. The Blue Dragons earned an at-large bid and went on to win the national championship.

Sophomore Devonte Bandoo and freshman James Rojas were named to the Region VI Tournament All-Tournament team.

Neither team had larger than an eight-point lead. There were 16 lead changes and 15 ties in the intense battle. Hutch’s largest lead came at 29-21 with 9:33 to play in the first half. Coffeyville’s largest lead was six early in the game.

With 2 1/2 minutes remaining in the game, Coffeyville took a 78-73 lead after two Keon Queen free throws. Bandoo nailed hit a big 3-pointer on Hutch’s next possession to pull within two. Then trailing 79-78 after a J.J. Rhymes layup with 1:23 to play, the Blue Dragons got a defensive stop. With 55 seconds to play, Rojas was fouled and he swished both free throws to give Hutch an 80-79 lead.

Tournament MVP T.J. Washington the struck for Coffeyville. Washington scored the final two of his team-high 19 points on a drive to the hoop for a go-ahead bucket and an 81-80 lead with 34.1 seconds to play.

After a Dragon timeout, disaster struck with a turnover with 14 seconds left to play. Bandoo was forced to foul – his fifth foul of the game – Coffeyville’s Casey Benton missed the first, but hit the second free throw with 8.9 seconds for an 82-80 lead. The Dragons missed on a long 3-pointer by Tiylar Cotton at the buzzer as the Blue Dragons dropped their third-consecutive Region VI Tournament title game.

Rojas has another strong game for the Blue Dragons off the bench with 21 points, hitting 6 of 12 from the field and 9 of 12 from the free-throw line. He added eight rebounds, three assists, three blocked shots and two steals.

Rob Whitfield finished with 17 points, hitting 4 of 7 from 3-point range and seven rebounds.

Bandoo had 16 points. Rhymes finished with 10 points and Cotton had nine.

The Blue Dragons shot 41.0 percent for the game (26 of 61), hitting 8 of 18 from the free-throw line and 22 of 31 from the free-throw line. The Dragons were edged in rebounding 38-37, but had one more offensive rebound, 13-12. The Dragons finished with 13 turnovers.

Coffeyville finished at 48.3 percent (28 of 58), hitting only 3 of 15 3-pointers and going 23 of 37 from the foul line. The Red Ravens had 11 turnovers.

Despite Coffeyville out-shooting Hutchinson 53.6 percent to 36.1 percent in the first half, the game was tied at 40 at halftime.

[ By STEVE CARPENTER ]

[ BLUE DRAGON SPORTS INFORMATION ]

PARK CITY, Kan. — Freshman James Rojas‘ first career double-double played a role in the No. 14 Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team advancing to a school-record sixth-straight Region VI Tournament championship game.

Rojas came off the bench to post career high of 22 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Blue Dragons past the Barton Cougars 74-69 in the first Region VI Tournament semifinal at Hartman Arena.

The 28-5 Blue Dragons will play either top-seeded Coffeyville or fifth-seeded Garden City in the men’s championship game at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. The Blue Dragons will be looking for their 19th Region VI championship and 21st appearance in the NJCAA Tournament on Wednesday.

This run of Region VI Tournament championship appearances started in 2013. The last time the Blue Dragons appeared in five-straight regional finals was from 1971 through 1975.

Blue Dragon head coach Steve Eck won his 259th game on the Hutchinson bench. That ties him with Charles Sesher for the most coaching victories in Blue Dragon coaching history.

For the second time this season against Barton, Rojas has been a key figure in a Blue Dragon victory over the Cougars. In February, Rojas had 22 points and seven rebounds as the Blue Dragons swept the season series with the Cougars in Great Bend.

On Tuesday, Rojas had 14 points and five rebounds in the opening half, but the Blue Dragons trailed 37-35. Rojas and Hutch leading scorers J.J. Rhymes and Devonte Bandoo combined for 31 points in the second half as Hutchinson outscored Barton in the final 20 minutes 39-32 to win their seventh in a row over the Cougars.

Rojas as 8 of 15 shooting from the floor and 6 of 10 from the free-throw line. He added three assists, two steals and two blocked shots.

Rhymes scored 19 points with five assists and three rebounds in the semifinals. Bandoo had 18 points and six rebounds. Bandoo hit 2 of Hutch’s 3 3-pointers in the game.

Sal Nuhu scored eight points, but sank four critical free throws in the final 29 seconds to secure the victory.

The Blue Dragons shot 47.3 percent (26 of 55) for the game. Hutch shot 52.2 percent (12 of 23) in the second half. The Dragons hit 3 of 9 3-pointers and 19 of 27 from the free-throw line. The Blue Dragons were out-rebounnded 45-39 and had 14 turnovers, six more than the Cougars.

Kawanise Wilkins led the Cougars with 16 points. Marvin Cannon had 15 points, followed by Keshon Montegue with 14 and Akeem White with 11.

Barton shot 33.3 percent from the field (23 of 69), hitting 7 of 31 from 3-point range and 16 of 26 from the foul line.

Barton led 16-11 in the first half and the Blue Dragons answered the challenge with five-straight points on a Rhymes tipin and Bandoo 3-pointer to knot the score at 16 with 11:14 to play in the half. The Dragons used another 6-0 run to build a 31-25 lead after two Rojas free throws with 5:18 to play. Barton closed the half on a 12-4 run to lead 37-35 at halftime.

There were seven lead changes and two ties over the first 7:04 of the second half. With the game tied at 45, a Rhymes jumper gave the Dragons the lead for good. A jumper by Rojas with 6:57 to play extended the Dragon lead to 59-50. Another Bandoo bucket moments later pushed the Dragon cushion to 10 at 65-55 with 4:49 to play.

The Dragons started getting careless with the ball down the stretch and after a Noah Webster 3-pointer with 1:18 to go, the Cougars had cut the Hutch lead to 68-65.

The Dragons did the remaining of their scoring from the foul line. Two Bandoo free throws with 48 seconds left pushed the lead back to two possessions. Nuhu then calmly knocked down a pair of free throws with 29 seconds left to extend the lead to 72-66.

After Wilkins knocked down a guarded trey with 20 seconds to go that cut the Dragon lead to 72-69, Rojas hit 1 of 2 free throws and the Dragons got a defensive stop on a Wilkins’ missed trey. Nuhu grabbed the rebound and was fouled. He hit two more free throws with 5 seconds left to secure the victory.

[ By STEVE CARPENTER ]

[ BLUE DRAGON SPORTS INFORMATION ]

PARK CITY, Kan. — The final three quarters of Tuesday’s Region VI Tournament semifinal against the Independence Pirates was a grind to find any consistent offense.

Shooting only 35 percent over the last three quarters and committing 29 turnovers doomed the Blue Dragons in their regional title defense on Tuesday as the Pirates downed Hutchinson 70-50 in the first women’s semifinal at Hartman Arena.

The Blue Dragons fall to 27-6 and will have to wait until Monday to see if they will receive one of the eight at-large bids for the NJCAA Tournament in Lubbock. Independence (26-6) will make its first championship game appearance since 2012.

Tuesday’s 20-point margin of loss was the largest since losing by 19 points to Trinity Valley in the 2013 NJCAA Tournament championship game. The loss was also the first 20-point loss since December 2, 2007 when Labette defeated the Blue Dragons 62-36 in the 2007 Jayhawk Shootout.

The loss also snapped Hutchinson’s overall 15-game winning streak against Independence, including seventh-straight victories over the Pirates in the Region VI Tournament. The last Independence victory over Hutchinson was in the 2018 Region VI Tournament semifinals, 54-36.

The Blue Dragons led 19-15, going 4 of 4 from 3-point range, after one quarters. That lead was still five points (27-22) with 4:07 to play in the second quarter. Independence went on a 10-2 run to lead 32-28 after a Dakota Corle inside hoop. Kayla Barber hit a 3 just before the halftime buzzer to cut the Indy lead to 32-31 at halftime.

After Dejanae Roebuck scored on Hutch’s first possession of the second half to lead 33-32, the Pirates went on a 6-0 run and never gave the lead up.

The Dragons had the lead cut to one point twice in the third quarter – at 38-38 and 43-42 – but trailed 47-42 after three quarters. The Pirates outscored Hutchinson 23-8 in the fourth quarter.

Turnovers were a huge part of the Blue Dragon demise in the semifinals, committing 29 to Indy’s 12. The Pirates used that to build a 29-9 advantage in points off turnovers.

Tia Bradshaw tied a season high with three 3-point goals and led the Blue Dragons with 11 points. Dejanae Roebuck had eight points and eight rebounds. Kelsey Brett provided an early spark with a pair of 3-pointers to finish with seven points. Kayla Barber added six points.

The Blue Dragons shot 41.5 percent overall (17 of 41). They were 9 of 21 from 3-point range, hitting 6 of 9 from distance in the first half. The Dragons were 7 of 11 at the free-throw line. Indy out-rebounded the Dragons 32-27, grabbing 14 offensive boards to have a 16-4 advantage in second-chance points.

The Pirates were 28 of 66 shooting (42.4 percent); Indy was 8 of 13 shooting in the decisive fourth quarter. The Pirates shot 6 of 22 overall and 8 of 11 from the free-throw line.

Erica Moore had 16 points to lead Independence. Alek Akuen had 12.