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By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Sophomore Lamar Falley had a career-high 21
points and a career-tying five 3-point field goals to lead the Hutchinson
Community College to a big 100-58 Jayhawk West victory over Colby on
Wednesday night at the Sports Arena.
Falley led five Blue Dragons in double
figures as Hutchinson scored 100 points for the first time this season, for
the first time in 51 games and for the 156th time in program history. HCC
has now won four straight against Colby.
This was the third time in series history
that the Blue Dragons reached the 100-point mark against Colby. The 42-point
margin of victory tied for the largest victory the Dragons have had over
Colby and it’s the largest margin of victory this season.
“Colby was short-handed. That wasn’t the same
team we saw at their place,” said HCC head coach Ryan Swanson, who referred
two the 94-90 HCC victory at Colby on Jan. 20. “That’s what we were supposed
to do; put them away early and never let them back in the game. That’s a
sign of a good team and a sign of a team that has some maturity to it.”
Falley hit 5 of 11 from long range, marking
the third time his career that he’s hit that many 3-pointers in a game.
Falley added three rebounds, two assists and two steals. He became the
fourth different Blue Dragon this season to score 20 or more points.
Freshman Blake Bales scored a season-high 16
points, hitting 5 of 7 shooting from the field, 2 of 4 from 3-point range.
Bales tied a season high of three steals.
Sophomore Henry Rogers nearly had a
double-double with 14 points, nine points and three steals. Sophomore Bobby
Maze had 13 points and nine assists with three steals. Sophomore Ken Bowman
also had 13 points with three blocked shots and two steals.
“It was a really fun game,” Falley said.
“Everything was going well for us. We’ve learned that if we jump on a team
early, good things happen. We started the game very aggressively.”
Hutchinson (21-6, 11-2 Jayhawk West) shot 35
of 75 (46.7 percent), going 10 of 28 from 3-point range and 20 of 30 from
the free-throw line. The Dragons were outrebounded for the seventh time this
season, 45-42 with 10 turnovers. The Dragons had 24 team assists and a
season-high 19 steals.
“It was a great game,” Bales said. “Everybody
seemed to play well. The tempo of the game was really nice and everything
was flowing for us.”
The Dragons had another strong defensive game
holding their fourth-straight opponent under 40 percent shooting, holding
Colby (7-21, 3-11) to 36.7 percent (22 of 66) and 3 of 17 from 3-point
range. The Trojans, who were missing their top three scorers, were 11 of 20
from the free-throw line. The Blue Dragons forced an opponent season-high 30
turnovers.
Hutchinson set the tone right away scoring
the first six points of the game just 1 minute, 6 seconds into the contest.
From that point, Colby got as close as four points only twice. Leading 10-6,
the Dragons went on a 10-2 run to lead 20-8 on an Abdul Herrera bucket with
11:35 to play in the half.
Bales steal and layup capped off a 14-5 run
for HCC’s first 20-point lead at 34-13 with 7:59 to play. Weary then gave
HCC its largest lead of the first half at 26 (47-21) with 1:18 to play.
Hutchinson led 47-23 at halftime.
The Dragons continued to steadily increase
the lead in the second half.
Rogers’ hoop with 15:40 to play gave Hutch
its first 30-point lead at 58-28. A pair of Maze free throws pushed the lead
past 40 for the first time at 76-35 with 9:32 to play. Two Rogers free
throws with 57 seconds left to play pushed the Dragons to the century mark.
Hutchinson will travel to Barton County on Saturday night for an 8 p.m. tipoff.
GAME NOTES
– This was HCC’s second victory of 40 or more points this season. The other
was Dodge City (83-43). … The Dragons are now 30-2 all time against Colby,
16-0 at the Sports Arena. … Bobby Maze jumped to third place on the
single-season assists list with 196. … Head coach Ryan Swanson collected his
180th career victory. … This was all-time win No. 1,496 for the third
winningest team in junior college history. … Ken Bowman is now fourth on the
career blocked shot list with 93. He jumped to seventh on the single-season
list with 52. … This was the ninth time that Maze had nine or more assists
in a game this season. … Freshman Sam Edwards tied a season high with three
steals. … Henry Rogers has 41 rebounds in his last four games. … Abdul
Herrera has had 13 blocked shots in his last four games. … Freshman Ryan
Douvier scored his first points of the conference season. … HCC outscored
Colby 33-11 off the bench and 44-12 in points off of turnovers.
<HCC MEN-COLBY BOXSCORE>
OTHER QUOTES
Head Coach Ryan Swanson
On Blake Bales …
“Blake has shown all along what a great
defender he is. Tonight he showed the whole thing. He scored 16 points in 13
minutes. If he would have played the second half, he would have had a huge
night.”
On Lamar Falley’s first career dunk …
“Lamar has been practicing that dunk. He was
excited to be able to throw one down and his teammates were probably more
excited.”
On the quick start …
“We talked about coming out strong. We knew
we were a deeper team. We put pressure on them from the start and jumped on
them. We talked about coming out aggressive and setting a tone and that’s
what they did.”
Freshman Blake Bales
On his performance …
“It really helped my confidence hitting those
first two threes. I had really good all-around offensive game tonight. I
want to keep working hard in it and get better.”
Sophomore Lamar Falley
On Blake Bales …
“Blake played really good. He played good
defense and offense.”
On his first career dunk …
“I finally got one. I’ve been waiting.”
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