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By Bret Mitchell
HCC Sports Information
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
The Hutchinson Community
College women’s basketball team scored the third-largest victory in its
postseason history with a dominating 87-48 victory over Fort Scott on
Tuesday night in the first round of the Region VI Tournament at the Sports
Arena.
The 39-point victory
tied victories over Colby in 1977 and Dodge City in 1978 for the third
largest margin of victory HCC postseason history. It was also the largest
margin of victory ever against Fort Scott in 11 all-time meetings.
“I expected us to come
out a little bit tight because it is the playoffs,” HCC head coach John
Ontjes said. “But once we made a few baskets, we relaxed and guarded better.
It really was two good halves for us.”
Hutchinson (24-7) will
meet the Pratt/Independence winner in the Region VI quarterfinals at 5 p.m.
on Saturday night at Wichita State’s Koch Arena in Wichita.
HCC’s 24th victory of
the season tied for the third-most wins by the Lady Dragons, matching the
win totals of the 1998 and 2000 teams. The 1990 and 2002 teams tie for the
all-time lead with 27 victories.
Win No. 24 was achieved
with balanced scoring – the Lady Dragons had a season-high six player score
in double figures and 11 of 12 players suited up scored. Defensively, HCC
held an opponent to less than 40 percent shooting for the 27th time and
under 30 percent for the 11th time, limiting Fort Scott (13-15) to 28.1
percent shooting.
The Lady Dragons also
had season highs of 57 total rebounds and 24 offensive rebounds as HCC
outrebounded a taller Fort Scott team 57-37. Hutchison also had a season-low
11 turnovers.
“Turnovers and
rebounding is what wins games,” sophomore Amanda Fessenden said. “We held
our turnovers to a minimum, and that was a reason we won.”
Fessenden scored 16 of
her game-high 18 points in the first half. Fessenden was 8 of 8 from the
free-throw line to run her school-record streak of consecutive free throws
to 33, as well as move past Cian Carvalho into second on the Lady Dragon
career free-throw list with 264. With her current run, Fessenden also moved
into the No. 1 spot on HCC’s career free-throw percentage list past Brittany
Dietz at 85.2 percent.
Freshmen Brittany Hines
and Morgan Leatherbury came off the bench to score 11 points each with a
combined eight rebounds and five assists.
Sophomore Hailey Purcell
had a big night with her first career double-double with 10 points and 10
rebounds to go along with three assists, two steals and a career-high tying
two blocked shots. Purcell also had a career-high six free throws, going 6
of 6 from the stripe.
Sophomore Amber Schroer
just missed a double-double with 10 points, nine rebounds and three assists.
Freshman Briyana Evans also scored in double figures with 10 points and
pulling down a season-high seven rebounds.
The Lady Dragons shot 29
of 73 overall (29.7 percent). HCC hit seven first-half 3-pointers and
finished 7 of 21 from behind the arc. The Lady Dragons were also 22 of 26
from the free-throw line.
The Greyhounds shot 18
of 64 (28.1 percent), only 8 of 35 in the second half. The Hounds were 4 of
18 from 3-point range and 8 of 10 from the free-throw line. Fort Scott
committed 18 turnovers.
Center Ashley Jappa
finished with 15 points, nine rebounds and four blocked shots to lead Fort
Scott. Kenya Doss added 13 and Miranda Chaney had 11, knocking down three
3-pointers. Fort Scott’s leading scorer, Leondra Doomes-Stephens was held
14.5 points under her scoring average with three points.
Fort Scott scored the
first five points of the contest, but held its last lead with 16:23
remaining in the first half at 9-7. After that, back-to-back Fessenden
3-pointers ignited a 13-0 HCC run that was capped off by sophomore Fairen
Lepaio’s jumper with 11:51 to play for a 20-9 Hutchinson lead.
Fort Scott scored the
next six points to pull within 20-15 with 10:24 to play. Evans put a stop to
that challenge with a steal and conventional 3-point play after being fouled
on a transition layup. Then Hines knocked down a trey to push the lead back
to 11 at 26-15 with 8:27 to go in the half.
Leading 30-21 with 6:14
to play, the Lady Dragons exploded for a 20-5 run over the remainder of the
half and took a 50-26 lead at halftime on freshman Kylie Shepard’s 3-pointer
right before the buzzer.
The Lady Dragons scored
the first nine points of the second half and led 60-26 with 15:49 to play
after a pair of Purcell free throws for a 60-26 lead with 15:49 to play.
Fort Scott didn’t’ score its first points of the second half until the 14:57
march.
After initially building
a 30-point lead, Fort Scott got as close as 28 in the second half. HCC’s
largest lead was the final margin of victory.
GAME NOTES
– The Lady Dragons are now 30-29 all-time in Region VI play. … The Lady
Dragons are 11-1 in first-round Region VI games at the Sports Arena. … The
Lady Dragons are now 10-1 all-time against Fort Scott, 2-1 in Region VI
meetings. … HCC finished 16-1 in the Sports Arena this season. … Amanda
Fessenden reached the 850-point plateau on Tuesday night. She climbed into
10th place by herself on the career scoring average list at 13.5 points per
game. … Fessenden is now No. 3 on the single-season free-throw list with
154. … Brittany Hines had her third-straight game scoring in double figures.
… The Lady Dragons had a team season-high 73 field goal attempts.
<HCC-FORT SCOTT BOXSCORE>
<HCC WOMEN-FORT SCOTT PHOTO GALLERY>
<REGION VI WOMEN'S BRACKET>
OTHER QUOTES
Head Coach John
Ontjes
On creating easy
baskets …
“As long as you get more
possession and create easy layups like we did tonight, you can (shoot a
lower percentage and win).”
Sophomore Amanda
Fessenden
On everybody seeing
plenty of playing time …
“It’s so much fun
watching them play. We know how good they are, and seeing them play with so
much energy is exciting.”
Sophomore Haley
Purcell
On defending a bigger
Fort Scot team …
“They were really strong
inside. But that was good because it made our post defense not back down.
They were strong, but were able to stop them still.” |
