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By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Friday, December 12, 2008
The Hutchinson Community
College women’s basketball team overcame a sluggish start on Friday night
against Crowder College, getting a huge lift from its bench to defeat the
Lady ’Riders 89-59 in the opening night of the HCC Women’s Christmas Classic
at the Sports Arena.
The Lady Dragons (10-1)
secured its 16th-straight season of winning at least 10 non-conference games
and it was the 26th time in 35 seasons to do so. HCC will play its last game
before the Christmas break at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday night against Hesston
College.
Hutchinson trailed by as
many as six points early in the game and scored just 11 points in the first
11½ minutes. But the bench and HCC’s press started to turn things around.
HCC scored 31 points in the final 9½ minutes of the first half to take
control of the game.
HCC’s defense tied a season
high by forcing 32 Crowder turnovers, scoring 29 points off turnovers.
“We got great minutes from
the bench tonight,” HCC head coach John Ontjes said. “They did a great job
of executing. We got the ball inside in the first half. We got off to a slow
start tonight, but we caused some turnovers with our press, which got us
going and we wore them down in the second half with our depth.”
The Lady Dragon bench scored
31 points, led by freshman Brittney Chamberlin’s season highs of 14 points
and 4 of 5 3-point shooting. Freshman Brittney Bell added eight points, four
rebounds, an assist, blocked shot and steal.
Combined, HCC’s bench shot
12 of 27, 4 of 7 from 3-point range, with 13 rebounds, seven assists and
five steals.
“It’s pretty nice having a
team that’s deep on the bench,” Bell said. “If the starters aren’t doing
well, you can count on the bench to come in and get the job done.”
Freshman Heather Robben had
her second-straight 20-point game, finishing with 20 points, hitting team
and personal season highs of 14 of 16 from the free-throw line. Ariella
McGhee just missed a double-double with 14 points, nine rebounds and three
steals. Sophomore Lauren Sparks had 12 points and four assists.
The Lady Dragons shot 29 of
63 overall (46.0 percent) and 4 of 11 from 3-point range. HCC had season
highs of 27 free throws and 39 free-throw attempts (69.2 percent). HCC
outrebounded Crowder 41-33 and had a season-high six blocked shots, four by
freshman Naudia Campbell.
Crowder became the first
team this season to shoot better than 40 percent against Hutchinson,
shooting 41.7 percent (20 of 48). The Riders were 7 of 18 from 3-point range
and 12 of 22 from the free-throw line.
Jessica Mitchell had a
double-double against HCC with 16 points and a season-high against Hutch of
12 rebounds.
The Lady Dragons started
slowly and Crowder (4-9), which lost 75-40 last season at the Sports Arena
to HCC, took advantage from the outside. The Riders took a 12-6 lead on a
Sharese Ward bucket and led 20-15 with 8:40 to play on Mitchell’s third
3-pointer of the first half.
But Crowder’s shots stopped
falling, going 6 minutes, 6 seconds without a field goal. Hutchinson went on
a 16-1 run through that span. Calli Matthews’ point-blank bucket from a
Briyana Evans assist gave Hutch the lead at 21-20 with 5:21 to play in the
half. A Sparks layup with 2:48 left pushed the Hutch lead to 10 points at
31-21.
HCC scored 14 points on 13
Crowder turnovers and led 41-28, outscoring the Riders 30-14 over the last
9:30 of the first half.
Leading by 13 points 5
minutes into the second half, Chamberlin hit back-to-back 3-pointers during
a 16-1 Lady Dragon run the really broke the game open. Hutch led 64-36 with
11:38 to play in the game.
“It gave me a little boost
of confidence,” said Chamberlin of her shooting on Friday night. “I was
struggling for a while. I hope this was the hump I had to get over and I
hope to keep hitting those shots.”
HCC’s largest lead came with
4:04 to play when two Chamberlin free throws gave Hutch an 87-48 lead.
Crowder closed the game with an 11-2 run.
GAME NOTES
– HCC won its third straight against Crowder and evened the all-time series
with the Riders at 8-8. … This was the fourth game this season in which HCC
broke 80 points. That happened only three times in 32 games last season. …
This was the fifth 30-plus point margin of victory this season.
HCC-CROWDER BOXSCORE
BETHANY-HESSTON BOXSCORE
PHOTO GALLERY
OTHER QUOTES
Head Coach John Ontjes
On Brittney Chamberlin …
“She hasn’t shot it to her
expectations yet. We’ve been telling her to keep shooting. She’s a great
shooter and tonight she got out of her slump.”
On Brittney Bell …
“Brittney knows her role.
When her time comes, she needs to get in there and do a good job defensively
and rebound the basketball. She’s getting more skilled around the basket.
She had some good minutes tonight.”
Freshman Brittney Bell
On her overall
improvement …
“I think I have improved a
lot. At the beginning of the year, I didn’t know a lot and my defense was
horrible. My defense has improved a lot. Coach Ontjes really does a good job
teaching us. This is the best defensive team I have ever been on.”
On doing the little
things …
“I really don’t care about
points. I don’t look to shoot. If I get the ball, I will take a shot every
once in a while down low. I really like to get rebounds and assists.”
Freshman Brittney
Chamberlin
On her shooting …
“I need to step up and make
some shots to open up our inside game because we have a good inside game.
Having a good inside and outside game is important in our conference.” |
