By Steve Carpenter

HCC Sports Information Director

Wednesday, January 7, 2008

DODGE CITY – The Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team shot a season-high 64.2 percent on Wednesday night to capture its first Jayhawk Conference Western Division road victory with an 86-74 victory over Dodge City at the Dodge City Civic Center.

Freshman guard Darius Johnson-Odom had his ninth-straight 20-point game, scoring a game-high 24 points. Sophomore forward Cliff Dixon had his second-straight double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds.

The Blue Dragons (13-3, 2-0 Jayhawk West) took charge early with a season-high 55 points in the first half, shooting 66.7 percent (22 of 33) from the field. The lead grew to as many as 21 points in the second half, but Dodge City refused to get blown out, cutting the deficit to 11 with 4:28 to play in the game.

“We talked at halftime about having the maturity to know that the game wasn’t over,” HCC head coach Ryan Swanson said. “(Rodney) Clinkscales is dangerous. They have other guys who shoot well and they have a veteran point guard. They were dangerous. When we got the lead to 20, we didn’t keep the same intensity or same level of execution. But it’s a road win and we are happy about that.”

Johnson-Odom was 9 of 16 shooting, 2 of 4 from 3-point range, to score 24 points. He also had eight rebounds and seven assists.

After missing his first two shots, Dixon finished 8 of 11 from the floor for 18 points.

Freshman Dominique Rutledge was also huge for HCC, scoring 19 points on 9 of 13 shooting.

For the game, HCC shot 34 of 55 (64.2 percent), 6 of 10 from 3-point range and was 12 of 17 from the free-throw line. The Dragons had a decisive rebounding advantage (39-28) and committed 18 turnovers.

“Every game we try to attack inside,” Dixon said. “Me and Dominique were successful going inside tonight, so we just ran with it.”

Defensively, the Blue Dragons were sent an early message by their head coach.

After Dodge City’s top scorer and 3-point threat Rodney Clinkscales hit a wide-open 3-pointer on the first possession of the game, Swanson called a timeout just 28 into the game.

“(Clinkscales) is their best shooter and he came out shooting and made his first shot,” Dixon said. “Coach called timeout and told us to get it together and told us to not give him any room to shoot. Chris (Banks) and Javari (Williams) did a great job of that. We held him to a low percentage. He’s a great shooter.”

Added Rutledge: “He wanted to make sure our minds were right. They shot a wide-open 3-pointer in transition. He called that timeout to make sure we were doing what we were supposed to do.”

The Dragons received the message loud and clear. Clinkscales finished shooting just 3 of 15 and 11 points.

Dodge City shot 42.3 percent overall (30 of 71) and was 6 of 14 from 3-point range and 8 of 14 from the free-throw line. The Conquistadors (7-9, 0-2) had just eight turnovers.

Cory Perkins led Dodge City with 18 points.

Dodge City quickly jumped out 5-0 and led 9-7 when the Dragons grabbed control of the game. Lazarius Johnson hit a 3-pointer with 15:15 to play in the opening half to give HCC a 10-9 lead and start an 18-5 run. Rutledge scored seven-straight points at the end of the run to give the Dragons a 25-14 lead with 10:08 to play in the half.

Devon McBride’s 3-pointer with 1 second remaining gave the Blue Dragons their largest lead of the half at 55-39. HCC shot 20 of 31 in the first half.

“We took good shots and we didn’t force up bad shots,” Swanson said. “The guys did a good job of knocking them down. We talked about the fact that we had only eight assists the other night and we came back with 17 tonight. The more assists you have usually indicate that you are getting high-percentage shots.”

Hutch led 74-53 with 9 minutes remaining in the second half when the Blue Dragons hit an offensive dry spell, going scoreless for 4 minutes, 20 seconds. Dodge City scored nine unanswered points during that stretch and the HCC lead dwindled to 74-62. A Rutledge dunk finally got the Dragon offense restarted to close out the victory.

Despite the extended scoring drought, HCC still shot 60.9 percent in the second half (14 of 23).

The Blue Dragons will play host to Garden City at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Sports Arena.

GAME NOTES – This was HCC’s third-straight victory over Dodge City. … The Dragons are now 103-58 vs. the Conquistadors, 39-32 in Dodge City. … This was Dixon’s 17th double-double of his career. He is tied with Rutledge for the team lead with three. … The starting line-up of Johnson-Odom, Johnson, Javari Williams, Tom Shirley and Rutledge was the eight different lineup used this season. … This was the second game this season where HCC shot 60 percent or better. … Rutledge had his sixth-straight game scoring in double figures.

 

BOXSCORE

 

OTHER QUOTES

Head Coach Ryan Swanson

On the timeout 28 seconds into the game …

“I wasn’t going to wait and watch Clinkscales hit a couple of more threes and be down 9-0 before I called my next timeout. We’ve talked about him plenty in our preparation and for him to get a wide-open look on the first possession was unacceptable.”

 

On Cliff Dixon …

“Cliff missed his first couple of shots because he was settling for outside shots. What makes Cliff so effective is that at his size is he can get good looks from 10 to 15 feet and with his height, he can shoot over people. He started going to the rim and got some easy looks and the result was he shot a high percentage.”

 

Sophomore Cliff Dixon

On the timeout 28 seconds into the game …

“I’ve never seen a timeout called that early before. It caught me off guard.”

 

On starting 2-0 in the Jayhawk West …

“The Jayhawk Conference is one of the toughest conferences to play in. We know that the games will be tougher and tougher. Every game is as big as Seward.”

 

Freshman Dominique Rutledge

On the game plan against Dodge City …

“They are a great team. They have a bunch of scorers. We had to stay consistent and get the ball inside. We stuck with that.”