[ By STEVE CARPENTER ]
[ HCC SPORTS INFORMATION ]
Photo courtesy of Joel Powers, HCC Sports Information
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — It took every bit of a 27-game winning streak to do so, but the Hutchinson Community College women’s basketball team clinched the 2017 Jayhawk Conference championship on Monday night.
The No. 2-ranked Blue Dragons defeated Dodge City 101-44 at the Sports Arena to clinch a share of the 2017 league championship. The Blue Dragons share the title with No. 4-ranked Seward County, which earned its share of the championship with a decisive win over Garden City on Monday in Liberal.
Hutchinson completes the regular season at 29-1 overall and rides a 27-game winning streak into the postseason. Hutchinson and Seward County tied for the top Jayhawk Conference record at 25-1, with each team handing the other its only season loss.
Seward County was awarded the No. 1 overall seed for the upcoming Region VI Tournament after winning a coin toss – the final tiebreaker after all the other league tiebreakers weren’t sufficient to break the tie between the Blue Dragons and Saints. Seward will receive an opening-round bye on Thursday, while the Blue Dragons will now face Colby at 6 p.m. on Thursday in the opening round at the Sports Arena. The winner of that game will move on to Monday’s quarterfinals at Hartman Arena in Park City.
The Blue Dragons took care of business early on Monday opening a 31-6 lead after the first quarter. Hutch hit 13 of its first 17 shot attempts and shot 73.5 percent in the opening half.
Hutchinson broke a team single-game record with 34 total assists on 43 made baskets against Dodge City (4-26, 4-22). Inja Butina, the program’s single-game, season and career assist leader, had seven assists, while Lakin Preisner, Taylor Stahly and Brenna McClure had five assists each.
All five Blue Dragons starters scored in double figures and seven players scored 10 or more points on Monday. All 12 players scored in the game.
Stahly knocked down 5 of 9 3-pointers to finish with a team-high 15 points. She now has 194 career 3-pointers, 10 treys shy of breaking Brittany Dietz’s record of 203. Stahly moved past Seward County’s Alyson Uppendahl into second place on the Jayhawk Conference’s career 3-point list.
Bride Kennedy-Hopoate had 13 points on 5 of 8 shooting. Kyla Williams was a perfect 6 for 6 from the floor and finished with 12 points. Alicia Brown also finished with 12 points.
Preisner finished with 11 points, hitting 3 of 4 3-pointers. Butina and Kirea Rogers had 10 points each.
The Blue Dragons finished 43 of 74 from the field (58.1 percent). The Dragons sank a season high 11 3-pointers in 19 attempts. Hutchinson out-rebounded Dodge City 47-25. Hutch also had 16 steals led by Butina’s four steals.
Alexus Johnson had a game-high 25 points to lead Dodge City. The Conquistadors shot 24.0 percent (12 of 50), going 5 of 14 from 3-point range and 15 of 19 from the free-throw line. The Conquistadors had 27 turnovers.