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By Bret Mitchell
HCC Sports Information
Wednesday, February 12, 2008
The Hutchinson Community
College women’s basketball team started out slow again, but was able to
bounce back and cruise to a 74-39 Jayhawk Conference Western Division
victory over Dodge City on Wednesday night at the Sports Arena for its 20th
victory of the season.
HCC achieved a 20-win
season for the 18th time in the program’s 34-year history. HCC is 20-5
overall and 9-2 in the Jayhawk West.
The Lady Dragons had a
balanced scoring attack with five players scoring in double figures and 10
players scoring in all.
Sophomore Amanda
Fessenden led the way with 14 points, to along with eight rebounds, four
assists two steals and a blocked shot. She jumped up to 12th place on HCC’s
career scoring list with 749 points.
Freshman Morgan
Leatherbury scored in double figures for the second-straight game, scoring
11 points.
Sophomore Amber Schroer
nearly had a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds with four
assists. Sophomore Fairen Lepaio and freshman Briyana Evans scored 10 points
each off the bench.
“For us to be able to
play kids balanced minutes tonight in the middle of the season, it allows us
to be fresher,” HCC head coach John Ontjes said.
“It’s so nice to see
them get in and do well, some people don’t get to see how good of players
they are,” Fessenden said. “They are just as important to this team as
everyone else. I’m happy for them.”
As a team, HCC shot 28
of 64 from the field (43.8 percent). The Lady Dragons were 5 of 21 from
beyond the arc, and 13 of 20 from the free-throw line. The Lady Dragons had
20 assists to a season-low 12 turnovers. Freshman Kylie Shepard came off the
bench to lead HCC with a season-high five assists.
“Kylie’s got such a big
heart, she’s a great team player,” Ontjes said. “She comes to practice and
never complains about playing time. She got an opportunity and took
advantage of it tonight.”
Dodge City shot just 10
of 44 from the field (22.7 percent), just 1 of 8 from the 3-point line
against HCC’s national fifth-ranked defense. Most of the Conquistadors’
offense came from the free-throw line, going 18 of 24. Jocelyn Anderson led
the Conquistadors with nine points and 13 rebounds. Leading scorer Keri
Rausch was limited to four points. The Conquistadors had 22 turnovers.
For the second-straight
game, HCC ‘s offense started slowly. Dodge City started the game on a 6-2
run, before HCC answered with a 9-0 run over a seven-minute span, taking the
lead for good on freshman Lauren Sparks’ jumper with 11:45 to play in the
half.
An Evans steal and layup
capped off another 10-0 run, and gave HCC an early 21-8 lead with 8:31 to
play. The lead extended to as much as 18 in the first half, and HCC led
35-19 at halftime.
A Kylee Naccarato field
goal gave HCC its first 20-plus point lead at 42-21 just four minutes into
the second half.
HCC pushed the lead to
as much as 36 points, and cruised to the eventual 35-point victory.
The Lady Dragons will
head to Pratt on Saturday. HCC had defeated the Beavers in the first
meeting, winning 73-44 in Hutchinson.
GAME NOTES
– The previous low in turnovers for HCC was 13, coming in the first game of
the season against Kansas Wesleyan JV. … HCC had a team season-high six
blocked shots. … HCC is now 48-25 all time vs. Dodge City. … This was HCC’s
18th season sweep of Dodge City. … Amanda Fessenden is now five 3-pointers
away from being the seventh Lady Dragon to reach 100 3-pointers in a career.
… Nikki Lawrence made her first career start, finishing with four points and
two assists. … HCC’s bench outscored Dodge City’s 38-11. … HCC outscored
Dodge City in points off of turnovers 33-8. … This was HCC’s ninth 20-plus
point victory of the season.
<HCC
WOMEN-DODGE CITY BOXSCORE>
<HCC-DODGE CITY WOMEN'S PHOTO GALLERY>
OTHER QUOTES
Head Coach John
Ontjes
On the slow start …
“I thought that the
start of the game, we were a little slow and sluggish. We picked things up,
and it was a good all around performance for our kids. Everyone got an
opportunity, everyone played hard, everyone contributed.”
On Briyana Evans’
play …
“Bri’s working hard in
practice, spending extra time shooting. When you do that, you deserve to
play.”
Sophomore Guard
Amanda Fessenden
On the team’s
sluggish start …
“We just don’t come out
ready to play. After the first five minutes we get our feet wet and ready.
That’s not a good habit to get into, we have to come out ready to play.”
On the total team
effort …
“It’s awesome seeing the
whole team play well. We know what we’re capable of doing, but when we show
our fans and everyone else it’s like we’re giving them their money’s worth.”
Freshman Guard
Briyana Evans
On the effort …
“We played hard, we did
what we had to do. We executed our plays, and we didn’t have a lot of
turnovers.”
On the defensive game
plan …
“We were more focused on
stopping Ramirez’s penetration. In practice we went over all their plays
and how to guard them.” |
