by Steve Carpenter-HCC Sports Information
DODGE CITY – Sophomore Akbar Hoffman scored 15 of his career-high 26 points in a second-half rally that powered the No. 13 Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team to a huge Jayhawk Conference victory over Dodge City on Wednesday at the Dodge City Civic Center.
HCC trailed by four points at halftime, but dominated the second half in an 83-69 victory over Dodge City, splitting the season series with the Conquistadors. The Blue Dragons improve to 22-3 overall with their sixth-straight victory and 11-3 in the Jayhawk Conference. HCC defeated the Conquistadors for the ninth-straight time in Dodge City.
Hutchinson’s win combined with Neosho County’s loss at Pratt on Wednesday means the Blue Dragons and Panthers are tied for first place in the conference with five games to play. HCC has the direct tiebreaker over Neosho County.
The Blue Dragons struggled through another slow offensive start, shooting 41.4 percent with eight turnovers as Dodge City built a 33-29 lead at halftime, the seventh time this season HCC has trailed at intermission. The start of the second half was a much different story as HCC outscored Dodge City 16-2 over the first 6:07 of the half to overtake the Conquistadors. HCC shot 62.1 percent in the final 20 minutes and outscored Dodge City 54-36.
Hoffman had a career-high 11 field goals, including a pair of 3-pointers for the game. In the second half, Hoffman hit 9 of 15 shots to lead the second-half surge. Hoffman added six rebounds, three steals and a pair of assists to his performance.
Samajae Haynes-Jones racked up 18 points and six rebounds. He had a personal 10-point run in the middle stages of the second half.
Bashir Ahmed had 16 point, seven rebounds and a career-high six assists. Shakur Juiston scored 15 points with five rebounds off the bench.
With the absence of starting forward Keanu Pinder (injury), sophomore Moataz Aly scored four points and tied a career-high with seven blocked shots. It’s the second-straight game in the Dodge City Civic Center that Aly has had seven blocks.
The Blue Dragons finished at 51.7 percent shooting from the field (30 of 58). HCC hit 6 of 17 from 3-point range and knocked down 17 of 19 free throws. The Dragons had 17 turnovers and were outrebounded 36-35.
Lorenzo Dillard had 21 points to lead the Conquistadors. Josh Boutte has 18 points and 12 rebounds. Jeremy Treaudo had 10 points.
The Conquistadors shot 37.5 percent (24 of 64), going 6 of 20 from 3-point range and 15 of 23 from the free-throw line. Dodge City turned the ball over 14 times.
The first half featured nine lead changes and 11 ties with neither team building more than a four-point lead. Three different times the Conquistadors built a four-point lead. Trailing 18-14, HCC answered with a 6-0 run, capped by a Larry Dennis jumper that gave the Dragons a 20-18 lead with 6:25 to play.
Dodge City led 36-22 with 2:56 left, but the Dragons got a Haynes-Jones hoop and two Ahmed free throws to tie it at 53 seconds later. The Conquistadors then closed the half on a 7-3 run to lead 33-29 at halftime.
Trailing 34-33 early in the second quarter, the Blue Dragons took the lead for good on an Aly three-point play with 16:25 left for a 36-34 HCC lead. Back-to-back Haynes-Jones 3-pointers pushed the advantage to 45-35 with 13:53 to play, capping a 16-2 Hutch run.
After Haynes-Jones hit a pair of free throws with 12:31 left to cap his personal 10-point run, HC led 49-39. Dodge City scored seven straight to pull within 49-46. Hoffman and Ahmed sandwiched a Treaudo 3-pointer with treys of their own to push the margin to 55-45 with 9:28 remaining.
Leading 55-51, Juiston scored six-straight points for the Blue Dragons in a stretch of 45 seconds to immediately remain a double-figure lead at 61-51 with 8:14 to play. The lead when back up to 13 at 72-59 after a Haynes-Jones layup with 4:30 to go, but the Dragons had to withstand one more Conquistador run.
Six-straight Dodge City point pulled the Conqs within 72-65 with 3:10 remaining. Aly then hit 1 of 2 free throws to halt that advance and Hoffman converted a three-point play with 2:53 left to extend the HCC lead to 76-65. The Dragons closed the game on an 11-4 run. Hoffman scored eight of those points.
The Blue Dragons play host to Colby for Pink-Out Night at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Sports Arena.
GAME NOTES – HCC is now 114-63 all-time against Dodge City, including 47-32 in Dodge City. … This was all-time win No. 1,706 for the Blue Dragons. … This was Steve Eck’s 186th win at Hutchinson, one victory shy of tying Gene Keady for third on the career coaching list. … With his seven blocks, Moataz Aly jumps into sixth place on the HCC career blocked shots list with 108. … The Dragons are 8-1 in road games, 6-1 when trailing at halftime, 10-1 when shooting 50 percent or better and 17-1 when scoring 80 or more points … This was the fourth-straight game HCC had held an opponent to less than 40 percent shooting. … Samajae Haynes-Jones tied a season high with six rebounds. … HCC’s 54-point second half was the ninth 50-point half of the season.
(HCC Sports Information)