By Steve Carpenter

HCC Sports Information Director

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Trailing by one point with 1 minute to play, Darius Johnson-Odom and Cliff Dixon hooked up on a picture-perfect alley-oop that gave the Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team the lead for good in a wild and intense 74-70 Jayhawk West victory over No. 11 Barton on Wednesday night at the Sports Arena.

Barton led 65-64 and had possession of the ball when Johnson-Odom stole the ball away and then hit Dixon with a perfect lob pass for a dunk that gave HCC the lead for good with 55 seconds left in the game. Then in the final minute, the Dragons got a key blocked shot by Dominique Rutledge and another Johnson-Odom steal, plus four huge free throws in the final 33 seconds to secure their 13th straight Jayhawk West win and the sixth-straight victory over Barton at the Sports Arena.

“I saw Cliff on the right-hand side wide open,” Johnson-Odom said. “I saw my man commit to me. Cliff is 6-10, so I was pretty sure he would catch it.”

Added Dixon: “We knew they were a good transition defense team, so I just tried to run ahead of the pack. I got a couple of steps on one of the players and I was hoping Darius was going to throw it. He’s a really good passer.”

Hutchinson (15-4, 4-1 Jayhawk West) held Barton scoreless for the first 5 minutes, 55 seconds of the game and built a first-half lead of 18 (34-16) with 2:19 to play in the half. Barton came all the way back and took a 61-59 lead with 3:41 to play on a Chip Steven 3-pointer.

The lead changed hands six times over the next 3 minutes until Dixon’s dunk in the final minute.

“They’ve been in too many tight games on the road, you know that they weren’t going to go away,” HCC head coach Ryan Swanson said. “Luckily we had some plays left in us.”

Both Dixon and Rutledge had double-doubles to lead Hutchinson. Dixon had 17 points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots, while Rutledge had 12 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks and a steal.

Johnson-Odom for the second-straight game scuffled from the field, but scored 15 points with eight assists, two blocks and two steals. Freshman Tom Shirley had 13 points, eight rebounds and two steals.

The Blue Dragons finished shooting 25 of 60 overall (41.7 percent), but just 3 of 14 from 3-point range and 21 of 30 from the free-throw line. The Dragons had a slight 46-45 rebounding advantage and committed 21 turnovers. HCC had a season-high 13 blocked shots, getting a career-high five rejections from sophomore Austin Bond.

Defensively, the Blue Dragons held Barton (18-2, 5-1) 24 points under its 94-point-per-game scoring average. The Cougars were held to 31.5 percent shooting (23 of 73) and was 5 of 19 from long range and 19 of 23 from the free-throw line. The Cougars had 19 turnovers.

Steven and Taaj Ridley had 17 points each to lead the Cougars.

The Blue Dragons limited Barton to just 23.1 percent shooting in the first half (9 of 39) and held the Cougars to just two field goals in the first 11 minutes.

HCC scored the first eight points of the game and took its first double-digit lead at 21-10 on a Shirley jumper with 5:46 to go.

Leading 27-16, the Dragons went on a quick 7-0 run in a 44-second span on a Shirley jumper, a Javari Williams alley-oop dunk and a Bond 3-pointer to give HCC a 34-16 lead with 2:19 to play. Barton scored the final six points of the half to pull to 34-22 at halftime.

The Cougars slowly chipped away at the Hutch lead and eventually took a 63-61 lead on Steven’s trey with 3:41 to play. Steven then sank two free throws with 1:46 to play for a 65-64 Barton lead. HCC had to withstand a turnover before Johnson-Odom’s steal and lot to Dixon.

The Blue Dragons travel to Colby on Sunday for a 4 p.m. tipoff at the Colby Community Building.

GAME NOTES – HCC is now 73-17 all-time vs. Barton, 36-4 at the Sports Arena. … HCC is now 11-4 against nationally-ranked teams under head coach Ryan Swanson. … HCC is 12-2 at the Sports Arena this season. … Dixon’s double-double was his fifth of the season, the fourth in five Jayhawk West games and the 19th of his collegiate career. … Rutledge had his fourth double-double of the season. … Johnson-Odom had eight assists for the second-straight game.

 

BOXSCORE

 

OTHER QUOTES

Head Coach Ryan Swanson

On the alley-up that gave HCC the lead …

“Cliff did a great job of sprinting the floor. Darius made a perfect pass to him and it was a pretty, well-executed play by two very athletic and talented basketball players.”

 

On the quick start …

“We had a good week of practice. Dominique got us off well and our guards did a good job of getting him the ball. That got us a lot of confidence and it became contagious. Our defense is what got us the lead and ultimately what won us the game.”

 

On the play of Dixon, Rutledge and Shirley …

“Our three post guys combined for 42 points. It’s a credit to them and it’s a credit to our guards to get them the ball.”

 

Freshman Darius Johnson-Odom

On HCC’s defense …

“It got us fired up on defense. They average about 94 points and we held them to 70 points. It was a good defensive night on our part.”

 

On Barton’s second-half run …

“They are a really good team. We had a really good effort. We knew they would make a run. We had to keep our composure.”

 

On the league race …

“This was a key win for us. Barton has a lot of wins on the road. This was important to protect our home court.”

 

Sophomore Cliff Dixon

On the emotion of the alley-oop …

“It felt good, but we couldn’t celebrate. There was still 30-something seconds left and it was a three-point game. I was just trying to tell everybody that the game wasn’t over.”