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By Bret Mitchell
HCC Sports Information
Monday, November 19, 2007
ARKANSAS CITY – The Hutchinson Community
College women’s basketball team earned the first victory away from home in
head coach John Ontjes’ short tenure, gutting out a 43-39 victory at Cowley
College on Monday night.
The victory at Cowley comes on the heels of
an 81-73 setback last Thursday at Northern Oklahoma. The victory also gives
Hutchinson a season sweep with the Tigers.
“It takes toughness to go on the road and
win,” HCC head coach John Ontjes said. “This was a confidence builder for
us.”
“After you get your first road win, you have
more confidence when you go on the road,” sophomore Amanda Fessenden said.
Hutchinson had no players scoring in double
figures, with freshman Kylee Naccarato and Fessenden finishing with nine
points each. Sophomore Hailey Purcell had a career-high 14 rebounds and
Fessenden added 12. The Lady Dragons outrebounded the Tigers 52-34, with 15
of the boards coming on the offensive end.
The Lady Dragons shot a frigid 29.6 percent
from the floor (16 of 54) and was just 3 of 15 from 3-point range and 8 of
15 from the free-throw line. HCC also committed 23 turnovers.
Cowley had just as tough of a shooting night;
hitting just 17 of 61 shot attempts (27.9 percent) and missed on all seven
3-point attempts. Cowley was 5 of 8 from the free-throw line. The Tigers
turned the ball over 11 times.
Elena Yankova led the Tigers with 12 points,
with Gabrielle Curtis also in double figures at 11. The 39 points scores
were a season low for the Tigers.
The first half was a rather uneventful one,
with teams trading baskets the whole way before taking an 18-18 tie going
into the locker room at halftime.
The start of the second half was much of the
same story, until the 10-minute mark when Hutchinson went on a 9-0 run. The
run included two jump shots from sophomore Fairen Lepaio, two free throws
from Fessenden, and a 3-pointer from Naccarato.
“We started making baskets,” Ontjes said.
“We executed but didn’t make baskets in the first half.”
“We stopped turning the ball over, and got
defensive stops,” Fessenden said.
Cowley had one more run left in them, capped
by a Gabrielle Curtis free throw with 1:20 left to cut the HCC lead to
41-37. Cowley got no closer as Naccarato hit two free throws with 13 seconds
to play to keep Hutch up by two possessions.
“We got down into the stance and we were
active,” Ontjes said. We’re a pretty good defensive team when we do that.”
Hutchinson will return to the Sports Arena this weekend, when they take on Crowder
College on Friday at 5:30 p.m. The game is the first of the Brooke
Insurance Classic for HCC, which will wrap up on Saturday with a chance for
revenge against Northern Oklahoma.
GAME NOTES
– The win today gave HCC just their fourth in history in Arkansas City,
where they are now 4-10, and 16-22 in the all-time series. … HCC came into
the game ranked fourth in scoring defense at 49.5 points per game, which
will improve. … The season’s previous individual high in rebounds was nine,
held by Hailey Purcell.
<HCC WOMEN-COWLEY
BOXSCORE>
OTHER QUOTES
Head Coach John Ontjes
On missing easy opportunities …
“We just got to keep practicing hard. We
don’t put any added pressure on the girls, make or miss.”
Sophomore Amanda Fessenden
On the defensive effort …
“All week in practice we focused on defense.
We got a lot of defensive rebounds, and that was what won us the game.” |
