[ By STEVE CARPENTER ]

[ BLUE DRAGON SPORTS INFORMATION ]

With a career-high performance and buzzer-beating shot last week, Hutchinson Community College sophomore J.J. Rhymes was named the Jayhawk Conference’s Division I Men’s Basketball Player of the Week on Tuesday.

The sophomore guard from Phoenix, Arizona, averaged 27.5 points per game in victories over Butler and Barton while shooting 66.7 percent from the floor and 40 percent from 3-point range.

Against Butler, Rhymes scored 41 points, 32 coming in the second half, as Hutchinson rallied from 26 points down in the first half, 25 early in the second half to win. Still trailing by 2 in the final seconds, Rhymes got a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to fall to complete an 82-21 comeback, the largest comeback in Blue Dragon history.

Rhymes’ 41-point effort tied for the fifth-most points scored in team history.

Against Barton, Rhymes was closely defended all night, but still scored 14 points and had five assists against the Cougars.

This is Rhymes’ first Jayhawk Conference Player of the Week award in his career. Rhymes is the second Blue Dragon to earn Player of the Week honors. Devonte Bandoo earned weekly honors on November 28.

 

Dragons stay at No. 6

[ By STEVE CARPENTER ]

[ BLUE DRAGON SPORTS INFORMATION ]

The Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team remained No. 6 in this week’s NJCAA Division I Men’s Rankings.

The Blue Dragons ran their current winning streak to seven games with victories over Butler and Barton last week. The Dragons are now 12-1 overall and are alone in first place in the Jayhawk Conference at 8-1.

The Blue Dragons have now been ranked for 36 consecutive polling periods and for the 67th time in the last 65 polling periods.

Hutchinson started the season as the No. 1-ranked team in the preseason rankings, but slipped to sixth in last week’s first regular-season rankings. The Dragons’ only blemish is an overtime loss at Cloud County on November 15. Since then, the Dragons devoured then-No. 14 Coffeyville, road wins at Neosho County, Garden City and Butler and a victory over now No. 25 Barton.

Northwest Florida State remains the unanimous selection as the No. 1 team in the rankings. Vincennes University and Indian Hills stayed put at Nos. 2 and 3. After No. 4 Tallahassee lost last week, Salt Lake moved to fourth and Eastern Florida State jumped over the Blue Dragons into fifth.

For the first time this season, three Jayhawk Conference teams are rankings at the same time. Along with Hutchinson, Coffeyville dropped to No. 17 and Barton is No. 25.

The Blue Dragons are currently off for the Christmas break. Hutchinson returns with a Jan. 3 game at Cowley and plays next at the Sports Arena on Jan. 6 against Allen.

[ By STEVE CARPENTER ]

[ BLUE DRAGON SPORTS INFORMATION ]

This time it was Devonte Bandoo‘s turn to provide the key plays to an opponent’s challenge.

With at least a share of first place on the line on Saturday, Bandoo scored Hutchinson’s final nine points in the final 1 minute, 52 seconds to help the No. 6 Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team break open a one-point game and defeat Barton 81-73 at the Sports Arena.

The Blue Dragons won their seventh-straight game and improve to 12-1 overall and 8-1 in the Jayhawk Conference. Barton falls to 11-2 and 7-2. Coffeyville, which was part of the three-way tie with the Dragons and Cougars for first place entering play on Saturday, plays at Colby on Sunday.

Hutchinson was playing without head coach Steve Eck, who was serving a one-game suspension after being ejected in Wednesday’s game at Butler. Assistant coach Jay Cyriac was running the controls on Saturday.

Hutchinson led 72-64 after a Tiylar Cotton 3-pointer with 3:34 to play in the second half. The Cougars answered with a 7-0 run, pulling within 72-71 after a Noah Webster 3-pointer with 2:10 to go.

That’s win Bandoo took over.

On Hutch’s next possession, Bandoo hit a 3-pointer from the right corner with 1:52 to go to push the Dragon lead to 75-71. After a defensive stop, Bandoo nailed a floater in the paint with 1:16 to play to up the lead to 77-71. Bandoo then hit two free throws with 53.7 seconds left to go up 79-71.

Hutchinson outscored Barton 9-2 in the final 1:52 to pull away. Bandoo had all nine points, a rebound and blocked shot down the stretch to lead the Blue Dragons.

Bandoo finished with a game-high 19 points with seven rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots to lead Hutchinson. Bandoo had a pair of 3-pointers and was 5 of 5 from the free-throw line.

Rhymes finished with 14 points and five assists. Rob Whitfield hit three key 3-pointers and finished with 11 points and three assists. Curtis Hollis had 10 points. James Rojas finished with nine points and Kai Mitchel had eight points and eight rebounds.

The Blue Dragons shot better than 50 percent for the sixth time shooting 51.7 percent (31 of 60). The Dragons were 8 of 17 from 3-point range and 11 of 17 from the foul line. The Dragons out-rebounded Barton 43-33. Hutch had to overcome 20 turnovers, but had a season-high 10 blocked shots, getting four rejections from Sal Nuhu.

The Cougars were 27 of 70 shooting (38.6 percent), hitting 8 of 30 from 3-point range and 11 of 14 from the foul line. The Cougars had 13 turnovers.

Webster finished with 17 points to lead the Cougars. Marvin Cannon had 16 points. Kawanise Wilkins had 13 points and Keshon Montague had 11 points.

Hutchinson scored the first points of the game, but Barton scored the next nine before Whitfield hit a 3-pointer with 13:11 left in the half and Hutch trailed 9-5. A Rhymes drive to the hoop tied the game at 10 with 12:13 remaining. Barton eventually built a seven-point lead when Cannon hit a jumper with 7:46 left and Hutch trailed 22-15.

Trailing 24-17, the Blue Dragons regained the lead with an 11-0 run. When Hollis nailed a 3-pointer with 4:54 to play, the Blue Dragons led 28-24. Hutch pushed the lead to seven when a Hollis fastbreak layup gave the Dragons a 40-32 lead with 1:25 to go. Barton scored the final five points of the set and closed within 40-37 at halftime.

Hutchinson shot 56.7 percent in the opening half, but Barton scored 12 points on 11 Hutchinson turnovers to stay close.

Whitfield hit a 2-pointer, then a 3-pointer on Hutch’s first two possessions of the second half to lead 45-37 with 19:29 to go. A Nuhu jumper with 16:26 left made in a 10-point lead at 49-39. The Dragons had 10 other 10-point leads at 51-41 and 53-43, but Barton scored six straight and pulled within 53-49 with 13:44 left after four-straight Webster free throws.

Another Whitfield 3-pointer answered that Barton challenge to push the lead back to seven. A Wilkins 3-pointer tied the game at 58 with 9:39 left, but a Hollis jumper with 8:42 left helped the Dragons take the lead back.

With Hutchinson leading 62-60, the Blue Dragons used an 8-1 run to build a 69-61 lead with 4:17 to play after a Rhymes 3-pointer. Then Cotton’s 3-pointer with 2:47 remaining gave the Dragons a 72-64 lead. That’s when Barton scored seven in a row to cut the Dragon lead to 72-71 with 2:10 to go.

Hutchinson is now off until January 3 when the Blue Dragons travel to Cowley.

 

Cramer goes off against Cougars

[ By STEVE CARPENTER ]

[ BLUE DRAGON SPORTS INFORMATION ]

Sara Cramer hit a career-high six 3-pointers while the Hutchinson Community College women’s basketball team rode a season-high 12 3-pointers to a seventh-straight victory on Saturday as the Blue Dragons defeated Barton 72-53 at the Sports Arena.

The Blue Dragons improved to 9-2 overall despite shooting a season-low 28 percent (21 of 75). The Dragons are now 7-2 in the Jayhawk Conference. Barton falls to 8-5 and 5-4 as both teams enter the Christmas break.

The Dragons did their damage from deep, hitting 12 of 34 3-point attempts. Cramer nailed 6 of 13 from beyond the arc. Kayla Barber and Jada Mickens both hit career-high three 3-pointers in the game. Hutch sank four 3-pointers in the first quarter in building an 18-13 lead after one period. The Dragons hit 5 of 9 treys in the fourth quarter to help Hutchinson build leads as large as 22 in the fourth quarter.

Hutch’s outside shooting opened up the middle for Mickens, who posted her fifth double-double of the season with 28 points and 14 rebounds. Mickens was 11 of 14 from the free-throw line.

Cramer finished with a career-high 18 points. Barber scored nine points and Dejanae Roebuck had eight points and nine rebounds.

Hutchinson held a 50-34 rebounding advantage, grabbing 28 offensive rebounds. Hutch outscored Barton 27-6 in second-chance points. The Blue Dragons also had a season-low seven turnovers, while forcing 16 Barton miscues.

The Blue Dragons were 18 of 22 from the free-throw line.

Juliana Chagas was 10 of 15 from the field to lead Barton with 23 points. Jaylin Stapleton had 13 points.

The Cougars shot 40.4 percent from the field (19 of 47), going 5 of 14 from 3-point range and 10 of 16 from the free-throw line.

Early 3-pointers from Cramer and Mickens helped the Dragons jump out to 10-2 lead with 5 minutes remaining in the opening quarter. The Cougars countered with an 8-0 run to tie the game at 10 with 3:27 to play. Cramer’s second 3-pointer stopped that run and the lead immediately returned to eight with a Barber 3-pointer that gave the Dragons an 18-10 lead with 1:22 left in the half. Hutch led 18-13 after one quarter.

The Blue Dragons shot a frigid 3 of 18 in the second quarter, but two more 3-pointers and 7 of 7 free-throw shooting helped outscore Barton 15-12 in the period. The Cougars got back within 18-15 when Cramer hit from long range with 8:24 to play. Leading 21-17, Mickens converted a three-point play to push the lead back to seven. That play sparked a 12-0 Hutch run. Two Tia Bradshaw free throws with 4:28 left in the half capped the run and gave Hutch a 33-17 lead. The Cougars then held the Blue Dragons scoreless for the remainder of the half and scored eight in a row to cut the Dragon lead to 33-25 at halftime.

The Barton run continued into the third quarter with an Irene Chukwudi bucket to cut the Dragon lead to 33-27. Hutch finally scored its first field goal in 8 minutes, 5 seconds with a Mickens putback at the 6:19 to go. That pushed the Dragon lead back to double figures at 39-29. Leading 40-32, a Cramer 3-pointer capped an 8-0 Hutch run to lead 48-32 with 1:02 to play in the third. The Dragons scored eight second-chance points to lead 48-36 after three quarters.

Two Mickens free throws with 8:59 left gave the Dragons their largest lead to that point at 17. An offensive rebound and putback by Roebuck pushed it to 55-37 with 7:17 to play. The Dragons that their best offensive quarter of the game, outscoring Barton 24-17 hitting 8 of 20 overall shots, including five 3-pointers.

The Blue Dragons will next play Santa Fe College on December 29 in Fort Myers, Florida.