By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
The Hutchinson Community
College men’s basketball team nearly came all the way back from a
20-point deficit against Dodge City, but the Conquistadors pulled off a
71-68 Jayhawk West victory over the Blue Dragons on Wednesday night at
the Sports Arena.
Hutchinson (16-8, 5-5
Jayhawk West) suffered through a nightmarish first half in which the
Blue Dragons had just four field goals and 16 points and lost its
third-straight game and the fourth in the last five outings. HCC had its
14-game Sports Arena Jayhawk West winning streak snapped.
“We have to bring
intensity,” HCC freshman Darius Johnson-Odom said. “It doesn’t matter if
we are down 12 with five minutes to play or up 15 with a whole have to
go. We slacked off in the first half, but played hard in the second
half. We have to do that for the whole game.”
HCC trailed by as many
as 20 points in the second half and was down 62-52 with 2:01 to play.
But the Dragons scored 16 points in the final two minutes, pulling
within 66-63 with 35 seconds to play and 71-68 with 7 seconds to play,
but couldn’t complete the comeback.
“We have to out with the
same intensity that we had at the end of the game at the start,”
redshirt freshman Javari Williams said. “We need to play consistent
defense from start to finish. We need to rebound the ball and turn it
over.”
Johnson-Odom, held
scoreless in the first half, finished with 24 points, hitting three
3-point goals and going 11 of 11 from the free-throw line. Sophomore
Cliff Dixon had 19 points, nine rebounds and a career-high six steals.
Williams tied season highs with 12 points and seven rebounds. Williams
also had four steals.
The Blue Dragons
finished shooting 36 percent (18 of 50), including 5 of 18 from 3-point
range and 27 of 41 from the free-throw line. The Blue Dragons had a
35-31 rebounding advantage and had 17 steals, but turned the ball over
22 times.
“I wish I had the
answer,’ HCC head coach Ryan Swanson said. “It was one of those nights.
I thought we took good shots; we just have to make them. Same thing with
free throws. We are leaving a bunch of points on the floor. We are going
to have to have some guys step up and play better.”
After being held in
check by the Blue Dragon defense in the first meeting one month ago,
Dodge City’s Rodney Clinkscales had a huge game with 27 points. Cory
Perkins added 16 for the Conquistadors (10-14, 3-7), which snapped a
three-game losing streak and winning at the Sports Arena for the first
time since 2006.
The Conquistadors shot
52.1 percent (25 of 48), which is the second-straight game the Blue
Dragons have allowed a team to shoot 50 percent or better after a
26-game streak of teams shooting under 50 percent. Dodge City hit 3 of 9
3-pointers and was 18 of 26 from the free-throw line. Dodge City turned
the ball over 24 times.
“We have to stay
positive and stay together,” Johnson-Odom said. “We can’t let these
three losses get us down and make us play worse. We have to stay
together.”
Hutchinson was just 4 of
18 shooting in the opening half. Two of those baskets were dunks and HCC
went without a field goal for the final 5:33 of the half. Meanwhile,
Dodge City hit 52 percent overall in the first 20 minutes and used a
16-6 run over a 9-minute, 43-second stretch to build a 29-13 lead with
2:37 to play on a Nick Angelos bucket.
Dodge City scored the
first six points of the second half and led 36-16 with 17:16 to play;
HCC answered that, holding the Conqusitadors scoreless for nearly 4 1/2
minutes. Johnson-Odom hit a 3-pointer with 14:18 to play to cut the
deficit to 36-24.
The Conquistadors led
62-51 with 2:10 to go and went on a furious rally that got the game down
to one possession on a Williams putback with 35 seconds left to cut the
Dodge lead to 66-63. HCC forced a turnover, but Johnson-Odom was called
for an offensive foul. Clinkscales scored five-straight points,
including a three-point play with 21 seconds left to seemingly put the
game away with 21 seconds left.
Johnson-Odom knocked
down a 3-pointer with 15 seconds left and then Dixon scored with 7
seconds to play but couldn’t get the ball back.
The Blue Dragons travel
to Garden City on Saturday.
GAME NOTES
– HCC is 103-59 vs. Dodge City all time, 51-20 in Hutchinson. … HCC used
its 10th different starting lineup which included Johnson-Odom, Dixon,
Lazarius Johnson, Chris Banks and Dominique Rutledge. … Freshman Tom
Shirley missed the game with an injury.
BOXSCORE
PHOTO
GALLERY
OTHER QUOTES
Head Coach Ryan
Swanson
On the offensive
struggles against Dodge City …
“We have two guys who
can consistently make jump shots and stretch defenses. One was hurt in
Tom (Shirley) and one was being box-and-oned. No one else took the
challenge of stepping up and making plays on the offensive end.”
On getting things
turned around …
“The only thing that
will give us confidence is doing a great job of preparing for what
Garden City will do to us and for our guys to get in here and get up a
lot of shots. When we get out there, it’s imperative that we get off to
a positive start.”
Redshirt freshman
Javari Williams
On the recent team
struggles …
“It’s strange to me
because I know we can play like that the whole game. I don’t know what
it is. It’s something we have to figure out fast if we want to be
successful at the end of the season.”
Freshman Darius
Johnson-Odom
On how frustrating
this loss was …
“It was a tough game to
lose at home. We needed this game. We have to come in tomorrow and get
ready for Garden City, which will be tough.”
