By Steve Carpenter

HCC Sports Information Director

Sunday, January 25, 2009

COLBY – Colby’s Shamar Acuay turned in one of the best individual performances ever against the Blue Dragons as the Trojans stunned the Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team on Sunday at the Colby Community Building.

Posting a double-double by halftime, Acuay scored 38 points with 20 rebounds and nine steals to lead Colby to a 73-50 victory over HCC, only the third win against Hutchinson ever.

Acuay scored 10 points during Colby’s initial 12-2 run to start the game and didn’t let up. He was 15 of 25 shooting overall, had one 3-point goal, and was 7 of 11 from the free-throw line had 12 offensive rebounds.

“He’s a great player who is obviously very excited to play,” HCC head coach Ryan Swanson said. “That’s one of the best performances I’ve ever had against me. We tried everything and everybody on him. He got to the rim whenever he wanted and he had 12 offensive rebounds and nine steals to show how active and athletic he is.”

For the Blue Dragons (15-5, 4-2 Jayhawk West), Sunday was a nightmare. HCC had season lows in points scored and field-goal percentage (30.2 percent). It was also the fewest points ever scored against Colby in series history.

“We didn’t play good defensively,” freshman Chris Banks said. “It was our fault that he went off like that. He got a lot of offensive rebounds and we could have stopped that.”

Sophomore Devon McBride led HCC with 21 points and a season-high seven rebounds. Sophomore Cliff Dixon had 10 points and a team-high nine rebounds.

HCC struggled to 19 of 63 shooting and was just 4 of 25 from 3-point range and 8 of 16 from free-throw range. The Blue Dragons were outrebounded 48-43.

The Blue Dragons had a season-high 28 turnovers in which Colby (4-17, 2-4) produced 29 points. The Trojans 16 offensive rebounds produced 17 Trojan points.

Besides Acuay, Erick Peguero was the only other Trojan in double figures with 10 points. Colby turned the ball over 19 times and forced 17 steals against HCC.

“I don’t know what happened,” McBride said. “This wasn’t the same team that just played Barton. I think we thought it would be easy because of their record and we just beat Barton. All we can do now is bounce back. There’s a lot of season left.”

Colby took charge right away with a 12-2 run over the first 3 minutes, 54 seconds. HCC looked to have settled down and pulled within 15-13 on a McBride jumper with 9:50 to play. Then trailing by six points, Tom Shirley buried a baseline 3-point goal pulled the Dragons within 25-22 with 5:34 to play in the half.

The Trojans then blew the game open with a 19-7 run which was started with 10 unanswered points, seven coming from Acuay. Colby led 44-29 at halftime.

McBride hit a couple of 3-pointers early in the second half, but the closest the Blue Dragons got in the final 20 minutes with 13 points (50-37) with 17:04 to play in the half. From there the Trojans pulled away, building leads as large as 27 points (71-44).

Hutchinson, in the second half, was held to season-low 21 points, shooting just 27.6 percent from the field (8 of 29).

The Blue Dragons look to rebound from Sunday’s loss with a home game on Wednesday night against Pratt. Tipoff at the Sports Arena is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

GAME NOTES – Acuay’s 38 points per the most scored against HCC since Butler’s C.J. Calvin scored 36 in 2005. … This was the first time that HCC held to 50 points or fewer in 62 games. The last time came in a 75-50 loss at Cloud County on Jan. 13, 2007. … This was the worst margin of defeat to Colby in series history. HCC is now 30-3 vs. Colby, 12-3 at the Colby Community Building.

 

BOXSCORE

PHOTO GALLERY

 

OTHER QUOTES

Head Coach Ryan Swanson

On the overall performance …

“We had very poor team character tonight. We didn’t have mental toughness. After getting smacked at Butler when we were obviously not ready to play, they would have learned their lesson.  We now have to decide how bad we want to win this conference.”

 

On getting upset …

“It doesn’t show well when you are excited and play hard against the good teams. But against teams with a lesser record and they don’t perceive to be as dangerous, they don’t have the same mental approach to the game.”

 

On the team’s preparation …

“I could tell we weren’t ready to play. I had hoped we’d wake up. We tried every combination we could and nobody stepped up.”

 

Sophomore Devon McBride

Thoughts about getting blown out …

”We didn’t come out and acted like we didn’t want to play. I thought we were ready. We joked around before the game too much.”

 

Freshman Chris Banks

On the team’s preparation …

“We didn’t get mentally focused for this game and we took them for granted.”