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By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Saturday, January 26, 2008
The Hutchinson Community College men’s
basketball team ran its winning streak to 12 games on Saturday night as the
Blue Dragons knocked off Garden City 78-63 at the Sports Arena.
This is Hutchinson’s longest winning streak
since starting the 2003-04 season 16-0. The team that stopped that streak
was Garden City, who was coached at that time by HCC head coach Ryan
Swanson.
The Blue Dragons (17-4 overall) start a
conference season 7-0 for the first time since 1987, Dave Farrar’s first
season at HCC.
Hutchinson found ways to win against a very
good Garden City defensive game plan.
“I credit Garden City’s defense more than
anything,” Swanson said. “They packed it in and with their game plan, they
weren’t going to let Bobby Maze beat them, so that’s why they ran some
gimmicks at him and they did a good job with that.”
Maze finished with 23 points, going 9 of 12
from the free-throw line. Maze was held to a season-low three assists.
But the Dragons were very balanced
offensively. Sophomore Ken Bowman was the only other Blue Dragon in double
figures with 11 points. Sophomore Abdul Herrera and freshman Antonio Weary
had nine points each. Sophomores Lamar Falley and Henry Rogers had eight
points each. Rogers just missed his first career double-double, pulling down
a team-high 11 rebounds.
“We have a lot of threats on our team,”
Rogers said. “A lot of people can do a lot of things on our team. We are
very deep.”
Hutchinson was 26 of 59 from the field (44.1
percent) overall, going 6 of 19 from 3-point range. HCC was 20 of 33 from
the free-throw line. The Dragons committed 19 turnovers and outrebounded a
very physical Garden City front line 48-36.
“We have a pretty balanced team,” Maze said.
“A lot of people don’t understand that we play against different defenses
every game. Different players go off against different matchups. We take
what the defense gives us. We don’t have any selfish players.
“It’s OK is somebody doesn’t get 20. They go
get rebounds. That’s make makes this team a great team.”
For the 13th time this season, the Blue
Dragons held an opponent to less than 40-percent shooting. Garden City was
24 of 66 from the field (36.4 percent) and were 9 of 32 (28.1 percent) in
the first half. The Broncbusters (14-6, 3-4) hit 6 of 18 3-pointers and 10
of 17 from the free-throw line. Garden City committed 15 turnovers.
Tyrone Flemming led Garden City with 13
points. Sterling Link finished with 11 points and Corey Claitt had 10
points.
The Dragons set a strong defensive tone early
holding Garden City scoreless for the first 4 minutes, 15 seconds. HCC
scored the first six points of the game and quickly pushed the margin to 10
points on a Rogers dunk with 14:31 to play for a 13-2 lead.
Hutch’s first-half lead dipped to single
figures twice in the first half in taking a 36-26 lead into the locker room.
After a Falley 3-pointer to open the second
half gave Hutch a 13-point lead, Garden City went on a quick 7-0 run to pull
within 39-33 on a Claitt three-point play with 18:08 to play. After an HCC
timeout, the Dragons immediately responded with a 8-0 run over the next 2
minutes and led 47-33 after a Bowman bucket with 16 minutes to play.
Garden City got the deficit to single figures
only once more when Damien Young dropped a 3-pointer with 13:54 to play, but
Falley answered right back with a trey of his own for a 54-42 lead with
12:45 to go.
A 10-2 run from that point gave HCC its first
20-point lead of the game at 64-44. A pair of Rogers free throws gave HCC
its largest lead of 21 (68-47) with 7:38 remaining. The closest Garden City
drew to after that was 13 points with 1:54 to go.
The Blue Dragons complete the first half of
the Jayhawk West season on Wednesday night at Cloud County. Tipoff is at 8
p.m.
GAME NOTES
– Bobby Maze tied John Sweet (1994) for sixth place on the HCC single-season
assist list with 159. …This was Maze’s 12th time to score 20 or more points.
… This was the 14th time this season that Maze has led in scoring. … Henry
Rogers had his fifth double-figure rebounding game, the first in 12 games. …
Antonio Weary had a season-high five assists. … Abdul Herrera has made 10
consecutive field goals and is 18 of 24 from the floor in league play. …
This was the 27th consecutive game that Hutchinson has held an opponent to
less than 50-percent shooting. … The starting lineup of Maze, Rogers,
Bowman, Weary and Falley are now 10-1. … HCC is now 116-42 all time against
Garden City, the second-most victories against any single opponent. …
Hutchinson now has 1,492 wins in program history.
<HCC MEN-GARDEN CITY BOXSCORE>
<HCC-GARDEN CITY PHOTO GALLERY>
OTHER QUOTES
Head coach Ryan Swanson
On Henry Rogers’ performance …
The thing that helps Henry is when other
teams zone and they don’t account for Henry, he’s very active. He’s really
good at finding gaps and holes and getting some offensive rebounds.
On closing out teams …
The last two games, we had a big lead at
halftime only to let the other team get back in it. We don’t start the
second half with the same intensity as the beginning of the game. Part of
trying to be a championship team is to put teams away when you have the
chance, or we will get beat sometime because of it.
Sophomore Henry Thomas
On missing a double-double because of
missed free throws …
I was so disappointed. I practice my free
throws and I know every point counts. I wanted to kill myself for missing
those free throws … four in a row, that’s crazy.
On being able to pick up for others …
We consider ourselves a team. That’s what
it’s going to take to win a championship is everybody coming together.
Everybody has to have each other’s back.
Sophomore Bobby Maze
On the Blue Dragon crowds …
From the beginning of the season until now,
we are playing with a great atmosphere. I see a lot of red and blue out
there and I’m more excited about that that anything. I want them to be a
part of this, too. (The fans) make us.
On the defensive play …
Defense is what wins games. Any sport is like
that. If you have good defense, you are going to win. When we lock up on
defense, I feel we have a great chance to win. |
