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By Bret Mitchell
HCC Sports
Information
Saturday, February
9, 2008
One
of the worst halves of basketball by the 21st- ranked Hutchinson Community
College women’s basketball team was followed its largest comeback of the
season on Saturday night at the Sports Arena.
Trailing by as many as 15 points, the Lady Dragons rallied for a 65-58
Jayhawk West victory over Butler to sweep the season series with the
Grizzlies.
HCC
(19-5, 8-2 Jayhawk West) trailed by 13 at the half and 37-22 in the first
minute of the second half before freshman Morgan Leatherbury helped ignite a
25-6 run to overtake the Grizzlies (6-18, 1-10).
“I
just really wanted to win the game, my head was really in it,” Leatherbury
said. “I was kind of mad at halftime, so I figured I’d take my anger out on
the court.”
Leatherbury scored 12 of her team-high 15 points in the second half, scoring
eight points in that early second-half run. Leatherbury had a tremendous
all-around game against Butler with three rebounds, three assists and two
steals to go with no turnovers.
Sophomore Amanda Fessenden tied Leatherbury for team-high scoring honors
with 15 points, hitting two critical 3-point goals. Sophomore Fairen Lepaio
chipped in eight points, while freshman Kylee Naccarato and sophomore Nikki
Lawrence had seven points each.
After
shooting near 20 percent for most of the first half, HCC finished at 24 of
59 shooting (40.9 percent). Hutch was 16 of 35 from the field in the second
half (45.7 percent). The nation’s third-leading 3-point shooting team hit 10
of 19 from 3-point range, the second time this season that the Lady Dragons
have had 10 or more treys in a contest.
The
Lady Dragons struggled again from the foul line, going 7 of 15. HCC had 16
turnovers, but only four in the second half.
Butler came out and shot 50 percent in the first half, but cooled down in
the second half to shoot just 34.6 percent, and finished at 42.3 percent (22
of 52). The Grizzlies hit 4 of 6 3-pointers in the first half, but finished
1 of 7. Butler was 9 of 14 from the free-throw line as a team.
They
were led by sophomore Lekeshia Levi, who had her third double-double against
HCC with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Tiffany Stokes had 11 points, but only
two points after halftime.
HCC
was outrebounded by the Grizzlies for the second time this season and for
only the fourth time this season. Butler had a 41-33 rebounding advantage
and turned the ball over 26 times.
The
first 14-plus minutes of the first half were abysmal for Hutchinson. The
Lady Dragons had scored just nine points and after Stokes canned a 3-pointer
from the top of key with 5:57 to go in the half, HCC trailed 24-9.
The
Lady Dragons looked to be coming out of their offensive funk with a 12-4 run
over the next 31/2 minutes. Leatherbury’s first trey of the game cut the
Butler lead to 28-21 with 2:23 to play in the half.
But
Butler closed the half on a 7-1 run and Brittany Aldrich’s trey with 23
seconds left in the half gave the Grizzlies a 35-22 halftime lead.
“I
told them at halftime that we were playing like we practiced yesterday,” HCC
head coach John Ontjes said. “For the last two days our practices were
uninspired, and in the first half we looked like we had nothing to play
for.”
“We
just had to get focused again, and just start playing better,” HCC sophomore
center Amber Schroer added.
Kelsi
Bruner scored the first basket of the second half to give Butler a 37-22
lead, but the Lady Dragons finally found some offensive flow and answered
with 10 unanswered points, capped off with two 3-pointers by Lepaio and
freshman Lauren Sparks and the deficit was down to 39-32 at the 15:07 mark
of the second half.
The
Lady Dragons continued to chip away at the Butler lead and finally grabbed
their first lead of the game when Schroer scored on a perfect give-and-go
with Fessenden to give HCC a 40-39 lead with 12:56 to go. After Phylicia
Freeman’s bucket gave the Grizzlies the lead again, the Lady Dragons grabbed
the lead for good on the next possession on a Lepaio jumper with 12:13 to go
for a 42-41 lead. Leatherbury then scored five straight for a 47-41 lead
with 10:21 to play.
Butler stayed close for the next several minutes and pulled within 53-51 on
a Levi basket with 3:59 to play. The Dragons closed the door on Butler with
an 11-1 run over the next 2 minutes, 35 seconds. Lawrence’s free throws with
1:14 to play gave HCC a 64-52 lead.
The
Lady Dragons will stay home for a 5:30 p.m. tipoff on Wednesday against
Dodge City. HCC won the previous meeting 64-51 last month in Dodge City.
GAME NOTES
– The Lady Dragons wore pink headbands as a part of “Think Pink” night, a
week-long event by college basketball for breast cancer awareness. … With
her 15 points, Amanda Fessenden jumped two more spots on the HCC career
scoring list, moving into 13th place all time with 735 points. … Fessenden
is now alone in seventh place on the career 3-point list with 93. … The Lady
Dragons are now 2-4 when trailing at halftime. … The previous halftime
deficit HCC came back from this season was a two-point deficit at No. 8
Cloud County. HCC scored 29 points off of 26 Grizzly turnovers. … Fairen
Lepaio tied a season high with two 3-pointers. … Amber Schroer had a
career-high five steals. … This was the seventh time this season that HCC’s
defense has forced 25 or more turnovers. … Butler blocked 17 shots in two
games vs. HCC this season. … HCC is now 39-26 all time against Butler. … The
Lady Dragons won their 648th game in team history.
<HCC
WOMEN-BUTLER BOXSCORE>
<HCC-BUTLER WOMEN'S PHOTO GALLERY>
OTHER QUOTES
Head Coach John Ontjes
On
Morgan Leatherbury …
“I
challenged Morgan at halftime. We’ve got to have people that step up every
night and be aggressive. Morgan came out with some fire, and decided to
play.”
On
Amber Schroer’s all-around play …
“Amber is the solid piece inside for us; she does all the little things.
She boxes out well, she gets key steals, key deflections; she’s just a rock
inside.”
On
halftime concerns …
“I
was very concerned at halftime, because of how well they offensive rebound
and they were making baskets. I knew we could be in trouble if they came
out and shot the ball like they did in the first half. They just outplayed
us in the first half.”
Sophomore Center Amber Schroer
On
the positives …
“It’s
a pretty good sign that we can come back when we’re down by that much.”
On
the changes made in the second half …
“I
think our defense picked up a little more in the second half, and we started
making shots.”
Freshman Guard Morgan Leatherbury
On
the first half troubles …
“We
just weren’t playing like we usually do in the first half, it was sloppy.
We knew we had to come out ready to play in the second half to win the
game.”
On
the adjustments …
“We
knew that we had to win this game, so we just stepped it up and found the
open shots, and put them in. We got outrebounded in the first half, so we
knew we had to be better on that.” |
