By Steve Carpenter

HCC Sports Information Director

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Sophomore Cliff Dixon’s fourth blocked shot of the game was his biggest as a Blue Dragon as it preserved the Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team’s 82-80 Jayhawk West victory over Garden City on Saturday night at the Sports Arena.

Hutchinson led 82-79 with 7.7 seconds left to play. With Garden City having the last possession, the Blue Dragons fouled Thomas Manzano with 3.4 seconds left to play. Manzano made the first, purposely missed the second and got his own rebound. Dixon blocked Manzano’s final 12-foot jumper with 1 second left to end the game.

Hutchinson (14-3, 3-0 Jayhawk West) won its sixth-straight game and starts the Jayhawk West 3-0 for the second-straight season.

“We knew they were going to try to miss the second free throw,” Dixon said. “He kind of hit it hard, so I just tried to follow the ball the whole way and that’s why I was able to get the block. (Thomas Manzano) was knocking down shots all night. He made his free throws all night. I just wanted to follow the ball on that last one and got the block.”

The Blue Dragons led 49-37 with 17 minutes left to play, but Garden City, which hit 10 3-pointers, kept coming back, pulling within one point twice, including 80-79 with 16 seconds left in the game. But HCC never let the Broncbusters (11-6, 1-1) grab a lead.

“We didn’t play badly,” HCC head coach Ryan Swanson said. “Sometimes you have to give credit to the other team. I give Garden City a lot of credit. They could have folded, but they kept making plays. They are a good team. We are very lucky to get out of here with a win.”

Hutchinson shot 44.6 percent overall (25 of 56), including 5 of 12 from 3-point range. HCC was just 27 of 42 (64.3 percent) from the free-throw line. Darius Johnson-Odom, Devon McBride and Dixon were a combined 22 of 24 from the stripe. The rest of the team was just 5 of 18.

“It’s a mental thing,” Johnson-Odom said. “We have to stay focused on making our free throws. We shoot free throws every day, but everybody didn’t shoot well tonight. Monday we will be back in the gym working on them and our defense.”

Johnson-Odom had his 10th-consecutive 20-point game, scoring a game-high 28 points on 7 of 12 shooting and 12-of-12 shooting from the free-throw line. Johnson-Odom had seven rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot.

Freshman Dominique Rutledge had his seventh-straight game scoring in double figures with 12 points and six rebounds.

Dixon had his third-straight double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds to go along with a season-high four blocks and two steals.

HCC outrebounded Garden City 50-37, but hampered its cause with 20 turnovers, in which Garden City scored 26 points.

Garden City was held to 39.4 percent shooting (26 of 66), but was 10 of 27 from 3-point range and 19 of 29 from the free-throw line. The Busters had just 12 turnovers and 15 steals.

Manzano scored a team-high 21 points to lead Garden City. Trevor Ottley had 12 points, Richard Thomas had 11 and DeRon Anderson had 10 points.

HCC was able to build a 44-35 halftime lead on the power of 50-percent shooting (16 of 32) in the first 20 minutes. There were five lead changes in the first 2 minutes. A Rutledge bucket with 18:07 to play gave HCC an 8-7, a lead the Dragons never relinquished.

Leading 26-24, the Dragons went on an 8-0 run to build a 10-point lead for the first time at 34-24 on a Johnson-Odom 3-pointer with 6:20 to play in the first half. Garden City countered with an 8-2 run to pull within 36-32 with 3:31 to play, but Hutchinson answered that with an 8-2 run and led 44-34 with 1:48 to play on a Lazarius Johnson transition layup.

The Dragons cooled off to 37.5 percent shooting (9 of 24) in the second half, while Garden City upped its percentage to 43.8 percent.

HCC led 64-54 with 9:23 to play after two Johnson-Odom free throws. From there, Garden City continued to chip away at the Dragon lead. A Fred Williams trey pulled the Busters within 70-69 with 3:52 to play. Chris Banks then hit 1 of 2 free-throws with 1:09 to play to push the Dragon lead to 78-72, but once again Garden cut the lead back to one at 80-79 with 16 seconds left.

Johnson-Odom was fouled with 8 seconds to go to lead 82-79, which set up the final play of the game.

The Blue Dragons travel to Butler on Wednesday night in El Dorado.

GAME NOTES – HCC is now 117-43 against Garden City, including 65-8 in Hutchinson. … HCC is 11-2 at the Sports Arena this season. … This was HCC’s 12th-straight Jayhawk West victory at the Sports Arena. … HCC is 13-2 when ahead at halftime. … HCC is 14-0 when outshooting its opponent this season. … This was Dixon’s 18th career double-double, his fourth of this season. … Dixon’s four blocks tied a team season high. … This was the fourth time that HCC has reached the 50 rebound plateau.

 

BOXSCORE

PHOTO GALLERY

 

OTHER QUOTES

Head Coach Ryan Swanson

On fouling Garden City on the last play of the game …

“They way they were making shots, and it wasn’t like they just had one guy making threes, they had five guys on the floor that if they got a look, they could make a shot. Up three points, to make a three, all you have to do is one thing to tie it. To foul them, you force them to make the first free throw, you force them to miss the second, get the rebound and get the shot off.”

 

On foul shooting …

“Fortunately, that’s why you want your point guard to be a good free thrower and he’s a good one. He stepped up. He, Devon and Cliff had a good night from the line, but other guys have to step up and hit free throws as well.”

 

On Cliff Dixon …

“Cliff missed some shots he would usually make, but he was being really active. He got us 11 rebounds and four blocked shots, none bigger than the one at the end of the game. He’s doing really well for us on the defensive end.”

 

Freshman Darius Johnson-Odom

On fouling Garden City on the last play of the game …

“We were up three and they were good shooters on the perimeter. We decided to foul. We knew they were going to make the first and miss the second. We just had to get the rebound and then make a stop and got a good block from Cliff.”

 

Sophomore Cliff Dixon

On getting his inside game going …

“My shot really wasn’t falling tonight. So I was trying to get to the rim a little more. I was getting a rhythm at the free-throw line so I just wanted to get to the line. It was important that we never gave them the lead. I tried to stay positive. I was getting upset with myself, but I was trying to rebound and help my team out.”

 

On getting a third-straight double-double …

“I’m more of a scorer, but my mindset is to get every rebound. I want to get a double-double every game.”