By Steve Carpenter

HCC Sports Information Director

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

EL DORADO – The Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team had its six-game winning streak snapped and lost in the Jayhawk West for the first time after falling to Butler 86-60 on Wednesday night at Butler’s Power Plant.

Butler (13-4, 2-1 Jayhawk West) took advantage of every Blue Dragon mistake, scoring 34 points off of 23 HCC turnovers and scoring 23 points off offensive rebounds.

 “The story for us is that when we don’t turn it over, we score,” HCC head coach Ryan Swanson said. “We turned it over a bunch. Usually our first-shot defense is really good, but we gave up a bunch of offensive rounds. That’s been an Achilles of ours and it finally came back to hurt us.”

The 26-point defeat was the second-largest defeat in the 168-game series with the Grizzlies.

“We can’t sit around and dwell on this,” Swanson said. “There is nothing to feel good about after this game. It’s a long season, 16 games. Hopefully we this will be the worst we play. We didn’t get too excited about beating Seward and Dodge and Garden, we won’t sit and dwell on this one. We have to move on.”

Butler was dominant from the start, building an 11-point lead just 7 minutes into the game. The Blue Dragons (14-4, 3-1) pulled within seven points with 5:01 to play, but the Grizzlies outscored HCC 19-4 to close out the half.

The Grizzlies held HCC’s leading scorer, Darius Johnson-Odom, to his lowest point total of the season, just six points on 1 of 9 shooting.

Sophomore Devon McBride scored a career-high 24 points to lead HCC. Sophomore Cliff Dixon had nine points before being injured early in the second half.

The Blue Dragons shot 21 of 48 overall (43.8 percent), but were just 2 of 13 from 3-point range and 16 of 27 from the free-throw line. The 60 points were a season-low point total.

Butler was led by Caleb Walker’s 29 points, seven rebounds and four steals. Dushawn Brooks had 15 points, while Kenyon Miller scored 14 points and Maurice Colter added 10.

The Grizzlies were 34 of 72 shooting (47.2 percent) and hit 6 of 18 from 3-point range and 12 of 16 from the free-throw line.

Butler handed Hutchinson its largest rebounding deficit, outrebounding the Blue Dragons 46-28, pulling down 22 offensive rebounds. The Grizzlies had 15 steals among HCC’s 23 turnovers.

“We didn't prepare like we should have as players, McBride said. “We spent the last two days joking around and not taking it as serious. The coaches did what they could to get us ready, but we got what we deserved.”

Butler came out on fire and built a 21-6 lead with 11:22 to play after a Troy Pierce bucket. The Dragons then scored seven-straight points. Dixon’s second 3-point goal of the season capped the run and pulled the Blue Dragons within 23-16 with 7:04 to play in the half.

With Butler leading 27-20 with 5:01 to play in the half, the Grizzlies broke the game, holding HCC without a field goal during a 19-4 run that saw the Grizzlies take a 46-24 lead at halftime. Butler scored 21 points off of 15 Blue Dragon turnovers in the opening half.

“They played really well and they made us play bad,” Swanson said. “It was a big game for them. We didn’t match their intensity and that’s why they pounded us really good.”

The Dragons cut the Butler lead to 18 twice, but turnovers and offensive rebounds continued to haunt HCC in the second half. Butler’s largest lead of the game was 29 points at 75-46 with 5:33 to play.

The Blue Dragons get their first conference bye of the season on Saturday and will play Barton Community College with a high probability of first place in the Jayhawk West on the line next Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at the Sports Arena.

GAME NOTES – The loss snapped HCC’s second-game winning streak against Butler. … Johnson-Odom had his streak of 20-point games snapped at 10. … Dominique Rutledge had his streak of seven games scoring in double figures snapped. … HCC is now 112-56 against Butler, 44-33 at El Dorado. … The Blue Dragons are now 2-2 on the road.

 

BOXSCORE

 

OTHER QUOTES

Head Coach Ryan Swanson

On his thoughts about the loss …

“It’s a young team. We see ourselves on top of the standings and sometimes we forget how we got there. We were feeling a little bit too good about ourselves. This is a real reality jolt. We have to bounce back and get a lot better.”

 

On the defense against Darius Johnson-Odom …

“He did have eight assists, but he was 1 of 9 from the field. He’s a freshman. He’s human. Sometimes you have to tip your hat to them and they did a good job. “

 

Sophomore Devon McBride

On coming out for the second half …

“We planned for a second-half run, but it was a spotty effort. No need to point fingers, we all need to get back to work and look at ourselves and get ready for the next game.”