[ By STEVE CARPENTER ]
[ HCC SPORTS INFORMATION ]
Photo courtesy of Joel Powers, HCC Sports Information
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson Community College women’s head basketball coach John Ontjes set the all-time program record for games coached as his 2017 Blue Dragons extended their winning streak to 25 games on Wednesday night with an impressive start.
Allen scored the first two points of the game and then Hutchinson tallied the next 35 as the No. 2-ranked Blue Dragons rolled by the Red Devils 77-31 at the Sports Arena.
The Blue Dragons’ 25-game winning streak is now the fourth longest in program history, surpassing the 1977 team that reeled off 24-straight victories.
The Dragons improve to 27-1 overall and 23-1 in the Jayhawk, maintaining their share of first place in the conference with Seward County. The regular season is down to just two games with Hutchinson traveling to Independence at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Ontjes coached in his 342nd game at Hutchinson on Wednesday, which broke a tie with Tom Worthing for the most games coached in program history. Ontjes now has 281 victories.
Neither team scored for the first 2 minutes, 50 seconds until Allen’s Kamri Summons hit a shot inside. The Blue Dragons then proceeded to score 35 unanswered points, but that run started slowly. Leading only 3-2, Lakin Preisner‘s layup with 5:55 to play in the opening quarter was Hutchinson’s first field goal of the game. Hutch led 17-2 after one quarter.
Hutchinson held Allen scoreless for 13 minutes, 18 seconds of the first half as it bolted out to a 35-2 with 4:16 to play in the second quarter. The Blue Dragons held Allen to 2 of 16 shooting and forced 20 Red Devil turnovers in the first two quarters.
Hutchinson led 44-5 at halftime, the lowest point total allowed in a half all season and the first time since 2015 that the Dragons held an opponent to less than 10 points in a half – Central Methodist scored six points in the first half last season.
Kyla Williams came off the bench to tie her career high with a game-high 16 points. She grabbed five rebounds as well.
Only two other players scored in double figures for the Dragons. Taylor Stahly finished with 13 points, hitting 3 of 6 from 3-point range to bring her career total up to 187.
Kirea Rogers finished with 10 points, five rebounds and six steals.
Bride Kennedy-Hopoate finished with nine points and Lakin Preisner had eight points.
Inja Butina, the career and single-season record holder for assists, had her 10th career game of 10 or more assists with 11 on Wednesday. She also had six steals in the game.
The Blue Dragons finished 29 of 68 overall shooting (42.6 percent), going 8 of 21 from the 3-point range – six different players had a 3-pointer. Hutch was 11 of 16 from the free-throw line. The Dragons racked up 21 assists and 24 steals.
Defensively, the Blue Dragons limited Allen to 26.9 percent shooting (11 of 38) and forced 30 Red Devil turnovers. Allen was 2 of 11 from 3-point range and 7 of 15 from the foul line.