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By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Seward County’s 3-point
barrage and red-hot shooting put the Hutchinson Community College women’s
basketball team in a deep hole the Lady Dragons never climbed out of in the
Jayhawk Conference Western Division opener for both teams on Saturday night
at the Sports Arena.
The Saints shot 56.3 percent
in the first half, including 9 of 12 3-pointers in the opening half as
Seward County opened a 24-point halftime lead and cruised past Hutchinson
90-72.
HCC’s worst loss of the
season put a damper on freshman Ariella McGhee’s historical game.
McGhee became the first HCC
basketball player, male or female, to have 20 points and 20 rebounds in one
game. McGhee broke the Lady Dragons’ single-game rebounding record for the
second time this season. Her old mark was 18 set against Hesston College on
Dec. 13. McGhee tied the record on Nov. 8 with 17 rebounds against
Marshalltown.
“It’s always good to break a
record, but the victory is what counts,” McGhee said.
The first half was a
nightmare for Hutchinson (13-2, 0-1 Jayhawk West). Seward County hit 18 of
32 shots, including 9 of 12 from 3-point range in the opening 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, HCC struggled to 13 of 35 shooting (37.5 percent) shooting, but
stayed in the game with 5 of 10 shots from behind the arc. The Lady Dragons
committed 14 first-half turnovers as the Saints hung a season-high 56 points
in the opening half, building a 56-32 lead.
“Seward came in and played
well,” HCC head coach John Ontjes said. “They outhustled us. They
out-executed us. They did everything they needed to do to win the game. We
aren’t going to hang our heads. We are going to come to practice on Monday
and see what it takes to get better. There are a lot of fighters on our team
and we will use this as a learning experience.”
Added freshman Heather
Robben: “They made everything. They kept making threes and we couldn’t do
anything about it.”
The Saints cooled off
mightily in the second half, hitting just 5 of 28 from the field. Most of
Seward County’s offense came from the free-throw line. The Saints (13-2,
1-0) were 23 of 33 from the line in the second half and 34 of 48 from the
stripe for the game.
Hutchinson gave up 90 points
in a game for the first time since giving up 98 to Butler County on Feb. 28,
1996, a span of 391 games. It’s only the eighth time that HCC has allowed 90
points in program history.
“We did a very poor job of
guarding the dribble,” Ontjes said. “We got into foul trouble in the post.
When a good team like that is knocking down the threes, it’s hard to defend
the dribble-drive penetration and the 3-point line.”
Four Lady Dragons scored in
double figures. Freshman Naudia Campbell had 14 points and nine rebounds.
Robben finished with 11 points and freshman Ebony Bunton finished with 10
points.
Hutchinson shot a season-low
35.5 percent (27 of 76) and was 6 of 21 from 3-point range. The Dragons also
shot a season-low 48 percent from the free-throw line (48 percent). The Lady
Dragons outrebounded Seward County 53-47 and turned the ball over 23 times.
After its hot start, Seward
County wound up shooting just 38.3 percent (23 of 60) and was 10 of 24 from
long range. The Saints had 22 turnovers, but had season highs of 18 steals
and nine blocks.
Forward Amanda Pierson tied
opposing season highs of 18 points and 12 rebounds and had an opposing
season high of six blocked shots. LaNell Taylor hit 5 of 9 3-point goals and
scored 17 points. Rachel Barnes hit 3 of 7 treys and had 17 points. Megan
Lassley had 14 points and Vanessa Simmons had 10 points.
HCC’s 3-point shooting kept
the Lady Dragons in the game early in the first half. A Robben 3-pointer cut
an early four-point deficit to 8-7. Then with Seward building a 10-point
lead for the first time, Brittney Chamberlin’s trey cut the HCC deficit to
33-26 with 5:59 to play.
After that, Seward buried
the Lady Dragons with a resounding 23-9 run, taking a 56-32 halftime lead on
Taylor’s trey with 1 seconds left in the half.
“It was a lot more intense
and it was more fast-paced that what we were expecting,” Robben said of the
eight freshmen playing their first Jayhawk West game. “Coach tried to warn
us.”
Hutch held Seward County to
just one point over the first 5½ minutes of the second half, but only
trimmed the lead down to 18. HCC got the deficit down to 14 points three
times in the second half, but got no closer.
The Lady Dragons travel to
Dodge City on Wednesday night.
GAME NOTES – This
was the most points Seward County has ever scored against HCC. … Hutch is
now 29-38 vs. HCC, 16-16 in the Sports Arena. … McGhee’s double-double was
her team-high sixth of the season. … This was the first time this season
that HCC held a rebounding advantage and lost a game. … The 90 points scored
tied for the fifth most ever scored against Hutchinson. … HCC’s 72 points
tied for the seven-most points scored in a loss.
BOXSCORE
PHOTO GALLERY
OTHER QUOTES
Head Coach Jon Ontjes
On the team playing its
first Jayhawk West game …
“Hopefully we can use it to
build on and get better for Dodge City on Wednesday. They knew coming in
that the game was going to be quicker, physical and we didn’t match them. We
got in a big hole and it took so much to try and get back into the game, we
ran out of gas.”
Freshman Ariella McGhee
On playing her first
Jayhawk West game …
“It was way difference. The
tempo was way higher. We had to push the ball more and play better defense.
Our shots weren’t going in. We just had to keep going to the boards.”
Freshman Heather Robben
On playing her first
Jayhawk West game …
“We know what to expect. We
go on the road and hopefully get on a win on Wednesday and get it going.” |
