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By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
EL DORADO – The Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team used a
spectacular 21-1 run over a 7-minute stretch early in the first half against
the Butler Grizzlies and rolled to a 78-62 Jayhawk West victory on Wednesday
night at the Power Plant.
The victory was HCC’s sixth straight and 11th
in the last 13 games. Hutchinson (12-4 overall) improved to 2-0 in the
Jayhawk West, the first 2-0 start in league play since 2004. It was also the
fifth-straight victory over Butler.
The Blue Dragons trailed 7-2 just 3 minutes,
18 seconds into the game when they exploded for a 21-1 run over the next
seven minutes. The run was highlighted by two picture-perfect alley-oop lobs
from sophomore Bobby Maze to redshirt freshman Antonio Weary and a 3-pointer
from center Ken Bowman. When Dobrivoje Mavrak hit a short jumper in the
lane, the Blue Dragons led 23-8 with 8:07 to play in the first half.
The Hutchinson run was derailed by a power
outage to the scoreboard and scorer’s table that lasted roughly 15 minutes.
“If it wasn’t, it was close,” said HCC head
coach Ryan Swanson when asked if that was the best stretch of basketball
played by the Dragons this season. “I thought our team defensive effort was
as good as I can ask for. We had guys really pressuring the ball and we did
a great job off the ball denying. It was fun. That’s how hard they practice.
“To see them get it into the game and have
success with it, it encourages you and you keep doing it and doing it until
the power went out.”
The Blue Dragons produced their second-best
field-goal percentage of the season, shooting a robust 55.2 percent (32 of
58) from the floor. The Dragons were 5 of 14 from 3-point range and just 9
of 18 from the free-throw line. The Dragons produced 24 assists on 32
buckets.
Maze had his eighth 20-plus point game of the
season with a game-high 24 points to go with six assists.
Sophomore Ken Bowman posted his team-high
ninth double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Bowman had a season-high
four assists.
Weary scored in double figures for the
sixth-straight game, finishing with 12 points. Sophomore Lamar Falley
knocked down three big 3-point goals and finished with 11 points.
HCC outrebounded Butler 37-27 and turned the
ball over 18 times.
“We played terrific basketball,” Weary said
of the 21-1 run. “We saw what we had to do in the first couple of minutes
and we did that. Everybody stepped up and did what they had to do.”
The Grizzlies shot 42.0 percent overall (21
of 50), which marks the 22nd straight time that the Blue Dragons have held
an opponent to less than 50 percent shooting. The Grizzlies also came into
the game as the 16th-best team in the nation from behind the 3-point arc at
42 percent. HCC held Butler to 6 of 19 from long range (31.6 percent).
Logan Stutz had a double-double with 16
points and 11 rebounds to lead the Grizzlies. Maurice Coulter finished with
13 points and Cody Arnold had 10.
Butler was 14 of 21 from the free-throw line
and committed 20 turnovers.
“We came out with a lot of defensive
intensity and pressured up on the ball,” said Maze, who earlier in the day
was named the NJCAA Division I Player of the Week. “We had to pressure from
the beginning. We jumped on that team early and got some turnovers and we
had a chance to get ahead early, which we haven’t been able to do in the
past. It changed the game.”
The Grizzlies opened the game quickly and led
7-2 on Kevin Sechrist’s 3-point goal with 16:42 to play in the first half.
The Dragons didn’t score until 2:23 into the contest. Maze hit a bucket with
15:26 to stop the Butler run.
Maze’s bucket also started perhaps the best
single-stretch of play by HCC all season. Maze’s hoop started a stretch of
10 unanswered Dragon points, highlighted by two alley-oop dunks by Weary.
Maze’s drive to the hoop with 13:00 to play gave Hutch a 12-7 lead.
The Dragons completed their 21-1 run by
holding Butler without a field goal for 8 minutes, 56 seconds. Mavrak’s
bucket with 8:07 to play in the half gave Hutch a resounding 23-8 lead and
the power outage occurred.
From that point, Butler played the Blue
Dragons dead even. The closest the Grizzlies (6-11, 1-2) got in the first
half was 33-21 after a Coulter bucket with 1:37 to play. Falley and Maze
scored on HCC’s final two possessions of the half and took a 37-21 lead at
halftime.
A 6-0 HCC run highlighted by another
highlight reel dunk by Weary and a Sam Edwards transition hoop gave
Hutchinson its first 20-point lead of the game at 54-34 with 12:27 left in
the game.
Butler slowly whittled the Dragon advantage
down to nine points when Stutz scored with 58 seconds left to cut the HCC
lead to 71-62. But the Dragons knocked down 7 of 8 free throws in the final
52 seconds to secure the victory.
Hutchinson will complete this early two-game conference road swing on Saturday
with an 8 p.m. tipoff at Dodge City.
GAME NOTES
– This was Ken Bowman’s 13th double-double and 18th double-figure game of
his HCC career. … This was the sixth time this season and third time in the
last four games that HCC has shot 50 percent or better. … Sophomore Henry
Rogers tied a season high with nine points and had a season-high four
assists. … HCC is now 111-55 against Butler, 44-32 in El Dorado.
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OTHER QUOTES
Head Coach Ryan Swanson
On the team’s defensive pressure …
“Whoever is on the ball, it sets a tone
because you don’t want to let your teammates down. When you see your
teammate working that hard, you don’t what to let him down by letting your
man have a catch. Everyone else sees that. It picks everyone up. That’s two
games in a row that Sam has sparked us more than once in the same game.
That’s what Sam brings to the table.”
On getting a conference road victory …
“First off, Butler was coming off a big win
over a very good Garden City team. They may have struggled a little early
because they run a little more of a complex offense. Their record’s
deceptive because they are going to win some games in this conference. That
makes coming in here and getting a win that much more important.”
On things to improve on …
“We need to cut down on our turnovers,
especially late. We turned it over too much. The other thing is that we have
to do a better job of making free throws. That’s two games in a row where we
haven’t shot well from the line.”
Sophomore Bobby Maze
On the 21-1 run …
“We had everybody playing defense, everybody
was running up and down the court. We were diving after loose balls. If you
can play that kind of basketball on the road, a lot of people don’t
understand, but you have to trust each other to get that done.”
On getting a conference road victory …
“It means everything. The season starts over
in conference play. We have to take each game one at a time and only worry
about the next team when it’s time to play them.”
Redshirt freshman Antonio Weary
On defending Butler …
“We had to keep them off the boards. We knew
they were a shooting team, so we had to get into them. They hit a couple of
shots, but we got back into it and executed our game.”
On how the power outage affected the team
…
“Everybody got cold on the bench and we had
to start over. But once we got warmed up again, we were able to finish off
the win.” |
