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By Bret Mitchell
HCC Sports Information
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
EL DORADO – Sophomore Amanda Fessenden scored 20 points to lead the Hutchinson
Community College women’s basketball team to its sixth-straight victory with
a 76-59 victory at Butler on Wednesday night at the Power Plant.
Hutchinson (13-3 overall) starts Jayhawk
Conference Western Division play 2-0 for the first time since 2005. HCC
plays at Dodge City on Saturday night to complete the early league road
swing.
Fessenden hit three huge 3-point goals to
post her first 20-point game in eight games. Two of her treys came in a
first-half surge that saw HCC build an eight-point lead into an 18-point
cushion. Her streak of 13 straight made free throws did come to an end with
a miss on her first foul shot of the night. Fessenden then hit the next five
in a row.
Freshman point guard Lauren Sparks knocked
down a season-high 12 points, going 7 of 8 from the stripe (both of those
marks were season highs as well). Her previous scoring high came against
Northern Oklahoma with 11 points.
Freshman Brittany Hines and sophomore Amber
Schroer also scored in double figures, with 13 and 11 points, respectively.
Hutchinson shot 25 of 60 from the field (41.7
percent) and 5 of 12 from beyond the arc. HCC was 21 of 27 (77.8 percent)
from the free-throw line and committed 18 turnovers.
For only the second time this season, the
Lady Dragons were outrebounded. Butler had a huge second-half rebounding
margin and finished outboarding HCC 46-34, the widest negative deficit for
the Lady Dragons this season. Schroer led HCC with six rebounds.
Butler (5-11, 0-3) shot 37.3 percent overall
(22 of 59) and 4 of 14 from long range. The Grizzlies were 11 of 17 from the
stripe, but committed 32 turnovers in which Hutchinson converted into 34
points. The Grizzlies did garner 18 offensive rebounds and scored 17
second-chance points.
Forward Tiffany Stokes scored 17 of her
team-high 19 points in the second half to lead the Grizzlies. Sophomore
Lekeisha Levi, the 12th-leading scorer in the nation, was held seven points
under her 19 point-per-game average with 12 points on 3 of 7 shooting.
“We just tried to contain them when we
pressured them,” Fessenden said. “Them turning the ball over was just a
bonus.”
“We didn’t do as well as we usually do on
rebounding, but you have to look at how athletic they are,” Schroer said.
“We should have boxed out a lot better than we did.”
The game was tight in the first five minutes.
Butler’s Lindsey Handcox’s field goal kept it within two at 9-7. Over the
next four minutes Hutchinson went on a 10-0 run, with six of the points
coming from Hines. Freshman Morgan Leatherbury’s short jumper closed the run
and gave Hutch a 19-7 lead with 12:01 to play in the half.
After a Stokes field goal stopped that Lady
Dragon, run, HCC answered with another 9-0 run, with Fessenden scoring five
points during that stretch. Fessenden’s bucket with 7:11 to play gave HCC a
28-9 lead. The Lady Dragons held serve for the rest of the half and headed
into the break with a comfortable 38-23 lead.
HCC gained its first 20-point advantage after
a Schroer three-point play for a 43-23 lead just two minutes into the half.
The lead then fluctuated between 16 and 21 points for most of the second
half, with HCC never threatened.
After a couple of Levi free throws, Butler
pulled itself within 15 with only 4:21 remaining in the game. Fessenden
then showed her leadership, hitting a 3-pointer at the 3:58 mark for the
final dagger and a 69-51 lead.
“They kept hanging around, they had some
fight in them,” HCC head coach John Ontjes said. “I never really felt like
we had the game in control.”
Tipoff for Saturday’s game at Dodge City is 6
p.m.
GAME NOTES
– The Lady Dragons were swept by Butler last
season. … HCC is now 38-26 all time against Butler, 18-15 at El Dorado. …
This was Fessenden’s eight career game of 20 or more points. … Hines tied a
season high with three steals. … Sophomore Fairen Lepaio tied a career high
with five rebounds. … Sparks tied a season high with four steals. …
Fessenden joined the 600-point club and is now18 points away from joining
HCC’s career Top 25 scoring list.
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OTHER QUOTES
Head Coach John Ontjes
On securing a road victory …
“I’m proud of our girls; we knew it was going
to be physical. We came in and didn’t back down. Offensively we got a lot
of easy looks, we executed a little better than we did against Seward.
On the rebounding …
“We didn’t do a very good job of moving
people out; we got pinned under the rim and kind of played soft in the
second half. 17 offensive rebounds is inexcusable.”
Sophomore Amanda Fessenden
On the road win …
“It’s always an awesome feeling to know that
you can go on the road and get wins.”
On getting an early lead …
“We watched film and we saw that when they
got down early they got frustrated so we tried to get on them early. They
made a comeback and we got nervous, but we ended up pulling it out.”
Sophomore Amber Schroer
On the quick start …
“Coach wanted us to get out and get on them
fast so we could get them down. We though they would get down on themselves
if we got on them quick.”
On the second half …
“The second half seemed like it kept dragging
on. A lot of bad fouls and we didn’t play very good defense.” |
