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By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Sunday, December 2, 2007
COFFEYVILLE – Sophomore Ken Bowman posted his
sixth double-double of the season and tied a career high in the Hutchinson
Community College men’s basketball team’s 79-45 victory over Fort Scott in
the final game of the 2007 Jayhawk Shootout at Nellis Hall in Coffeyville.
Bowman had an outstanding game to lead the
Blue Dragons (8-4) to their third-straight victory. The sophomore from
Phoenix had a career-high 13 field goals on 20 attempts to match his career
high of 26 points. He had his sixth double-figure game of the season,
pulling down 11 rebounds. Bowman added a career-high four steals, two
blocked shots and two assists with no turnovers to lead HCC.
“I could tell he was focused and ready to
play,” HCC head coach Ryan Swanson said of Bowman. “His teammates did a
great job of finding him when he was open and he got some putbacks on
offensive rebounds. They really didn’t have an answer for him.
“He was active on the defensive end as well.
When you have one of only two returners who is a captain and a preseason
All-American diving on the floor after balls, it sends a strong message to
his teammates.”
Bowman was just one of several Blue Dragons
who had strong games against the Greyhounds (3-5).
Sophomore Bobby Maze had 10 points and nine
assists. Sophomore Antonio Weary just missed a second-straight double-double
with 10 points and nine rebounds.
Sophomore Abdul Herrera had eight bounds and
seven rebounds. Freshman Derek Burgan knocked down three 3-point goals and
finished with nine points, both season highs.
The Blue Dragons were 34 of 76 from the floor
(44.7 percent) and 5 of 14 from 3-point range. HCC was only 6 of 11 from the
free-throw line.
The Dragons had their largest rebounding
margin of the season, outrebounding Fort Scott 54-30. HCC committed 17
turnovers.
Hutchinson had its best defensive showing of the season, holding Fort Scott to a
season-low 45 points and 30.0 percent shooting, the second lowest percentage
against HCC this season. The Greyhounds were 0 of 7 from long range and 15
of 22 from the free-throw line. Fort Scott had 22 turnovers.
Jamill Harris had 19 points and Brandon
Kinnie added 12 for Fort Scott.
“That loss to Johnson proves that we can beat
anyone on our schedule and that anyone on our schedule can beat us,” Bowman
said. “There’s no reason that we should have lost to Johnson County. We had
a bad practice, a bad shootaround and we went out not ready to play and we
lost. The last three games, we’ve had good practices, good shootarounds
leading up to the games and we’ve won.”
The game was tight throughout the first 12
minutes of the game with five lead changes. With the Dragons leading 24-19
with 7:53 to play in the half, the broke the game open with a 20-0 run over
the next 5:05. Six different people scored in the run Back-to-back 3-point
goals by Burgan and Sam Edwards gave HCC a 44-19 lead with 2:48 left in the
first half.
The Dragons led 44-23 at halftime.
Hutchinson opened the second half with a 14-0
run to push the margin to 33 points at 56-23 with 14:48 to play on Bowman’s
short jumper. Fort Scott didn’t score for the first 6:17 of the half. The
largest lead of the night was 36. Dobrivoje Mavrak’s jumper with 6:33 to
play have HCC a 71-35 lead. Burgan hit his third 3-pointer of the game for a
78-35 lead with 4:33 to play.
The Blue Dragons will play Central Nebraska
and the Friends University Junior Varsity in the Airport Steakhouse Classic
on Friday and Saturday at the Sports Arena to close out the first semester.
GAME NOTES
– This was Bowman’s 10th career double-double. … This was HCC’s 14th
undefeated shootout in 21 seasons. … Hutchinson is now a Shootout-best 36-7.
… Maze had his fourth game of nine or more assists. … The Dragons are 27-13
all-time against Fort Scott. HCC is 4-1 vs. the Greyhounds in the Shootout.
… The Dragons have won four straight against Fort Scott. … This was the
third-straight game holding an opponent to less than 40 percent shooting. …
Mavrak had a season-high eight rebounds.
<HCC-FORT
SCOTT BOXSCORE>
OTHER QUOTES
Head coach Ryan Swanson
On learning from the Johnson County loss …
“It appears that they’ve matured over the
course of the last few weeks. That’s what you are supposed to do. It appears
they’ve learned from previous mistakes. A good team that’s wants to be
great, it showed what they have to do. “
Freshman Derek Burgan
On teammate Ken Bowman …
“He’s a good guy. He’s a great player and
he’s fun to be around. He talks all the time. He’s the best talker on the
team. He talks al the time and that’s important when you are playing.”
On learning from the Johnson County loss …
“We really kind of turned things around. It
seemed like we pick and choose who we are going to play hard against. We
have to come out like we did against Coffeyville every night. If we want to
win a region and get to where we want to get, we have to play like we did
against Coffeyville every night.”
Sophomore Ken Bowman
On his performance …
“I feel like I’m hitting my stride right now.
Coach is pushing me every day and I go hard in practice every day against
these guys. We have some good players, so when we play against other
opponents, it’s like another day in practice.”
On the decisive rebounding advantage …
“Everybody was going to the boards. It goes
to show what coach is telling us is sinking into our heads. If we rebound
and give teams one shot, we can be hard to beat.” |
