Sophomore Chelsea Small had career highs of 23 points and four 3-point field goals to power the No. 2-ranked Hutchinson Community College women’s basketball team to a dominant 102-69 victory over Pratt to clinch back-to-back Jayhawk Conference Western Division championships on Saturday night at the Sports Arena.
Hutchinson (27-0, 14-0) won its fifth women’s basketball conference championship, winning two straight after a 31-year drought. The Lady Dragons won their 26th-straight game in Jayhawk West play and won for the 58th consecutive time at the Sports Arena.
“I’m proud of our group of kids,” HCC head coach John Ontjes said. “They’ve been very focused. It takes a great amount of concentration to bring that every night, and to this point, we’ve done that.”
The Lady Dragons reached the century mark for the sixth time this season and shot better than 50 percent for the first time in six games and the fifth time in conference play, shooting 54.8 percent overall (34 of 62). HCC tied a season high with 11 3-point goals on 20 attempts. HCC shot nearly 56 percent in building a 52-33 halftime lead.
Small broke out of a mild shooting slump with 19 first-half points. For the game Small hit 9 of 14 shots, including 4 of 6 from 3-point range. She added four rebounds and three assists.
“I’ve been kind of slumping lately,” Small said. “I’ve been working hard, getting extra shots in practice. I need to start now because we will need everyone for postseason play.”
Five different Lady Dragons scored in double figures and all 12 players scored in the game.
Sophomore Kara Lee came off the bench to score 13 points with six rebounds. Lee was 4 of 5 from the floor and a perfect 5 of 5 from the foul line. Jade Herl had 11 points with a career-high-tying three 3-point goals. Aja Sorrells and Jasmine Patterson, both off the bench, had 10 points each.
“Our depth with this team will pay dividends late in the year,” said Ontjes, whose bench outscored Pratt’s 52-22. “We were balanced with our minutes tonight, and our scoring was balanced. I really hoped to have depth this time of the year.”
Added Small: “We had a lot of girls step up and do some good things. When we get to regional play, it will be big for our bench to step up and do those good things again.”
Hutchinson was 23 of 33 from the foul line. The Lady Dragons had only 13 turnovers, out-rebounded Pratt 37-24 and had 26 assists on 34 made baskets.
Pratt (13-15, 3-11) became only the second team this season to shoot better than 40 percent against HCC’s defense, posting a season’s best 46.8 percent (22 of 47) against Hutchinson. The Beavers hit 5 of 11 3-pointers and were 20 of 26 from the free-throw line. Pratt turned the ball over 22 times.
Cari Guyton had 17 points and Ann Pauly had 13 for the Beavers.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Laura Patrick and Jackie Patterson and a Small bucket put HCC up 10-2 just 3 minutes, 35 seconds into the contest. That lead grew to 17-4 after a Lanicia Lawrence bucket with 13:22 remaining.
From there, Pratt started hitting some shots and played fairly even with the Lady Dragons for the better part of the next 10 minutes. Back-to-back field goals by Patrick pushed the lead to 40-21 with 5:03 to play, but the Beavers went on a 12-3 run, pulling within 10 points at 43-33 after an Ashri Broadwater basket with 2:11 to play.
HCC closed the half strong, getting a 3-pointer and layup from Small, another layup from Patrick and two free throws from Lee to close the half on a 9-0 run and lead 52-33 at halftime.
“We all know what we had to do,” Lee said. “We wanted this game so we could clinch first place. We came together and did that.”
That 9-0 run to end the half was added to after HCC scored the first 10 points of the second half and HCC led 62-33 after a Jackie Patterson bucket. The 19-0 run took only 4 minutes, 43 seconds.
HCC’s largest lead of the game was 40 points at 87-47 with 9:54 to go.
The Lady Dragons enter the final week of the regular season with a road trip to Cloud County and the home finale with Seward County next Saturday at the Sports Arena. Game time on Wednesday at Concordia is 6 p.m.
GAME NOTES – Hutchinson won Jayhawk West titles in 1977, 1978, 1980 and 2011. … HCC is now 65-9 all time vs. Pratt. … This was the most points ever scored against Pratt. … In addition to HCC’s 58-game homecourt winning streak, the Lady Dragons have won 73 of the last 75 games played at the Sports Arena. … The 2012 sophomores tied the 2009 sophomores for fourth place in victories by a class with 57. … This was HCC’s 10th game this season to shoot 50 percent. … The 27 victories tie the 1990 and 2002 teams for fourth-most wins in team history. … This was the 12th 100-point game by HCC under John Ontjes and the 16th in program history. … This was the ninth game of 25 or more assists this season. … HCC reached 100 points for the first time in 13 games …. The 20 Pratt free throws were the most by an opponent this season.
(HCC Sports Information)