By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Saturday, February 7, 2009
GARDEN CITY – For the
second-straight game, the Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball
team fell behind by double digits in the first half, only to see a
furious second-half rally fall short.
On Saturday night, the
Blue Dragons trailed Garden City by 18 points with 12:20 to play in the
second half and rallied to make it a one-possession game, but ultimately
dropped their fourth game in a row, losing 79-77 to the Broncbusters at
the Perryman Athletic Complex.
“We were 16 down in the
second half and we came out and played with a sense of urgency,” HCC
freshman Darius Johnson-Odom said. “You can’t wait until you are down 10
or however many points; you have to play like that every time you are on
the court.”
Hutchinson’s four-game
losing streak is the first since early in the 1977-78 season and the
first four-game Jayhawk Conference losing streak since the 1952-53
season. The Blue Dragons (16-9, 5-6 Jayhawk West) also dropped their
sixth straight to the Broncbusters in Garden City and have lost 7 of
their last 8 at the Perryman Athletic Complex.
“It’s something that
they have to fix themselves,” HCC head coach Ryan Swanson said of the
slow first-half starts that have plagues HCC in recent games. “The best
thing to do is get into the gym and getting repetitions. I saw signs in
the second half of us breaking out of this thing. I thought they showed
a lot of heart and courage. We stepped up and started making shots. We
can build on that.”
HCC trailed Garden City
39-23 at halftime, but outscored the Busters 54-40 in the second half,
shooting 60 percent (21 of 35) from the field and committing only 4 of
its 15 turnovers in the final 20 minutes. The bulk of that comeback came
with Johnson-Odom on the bench. He fouled out with 4:52 to play and HCC
trailing 74-62. The Dragons proceeded to outscore Garden City (16-6,
6-4) 15-5 the rest of the way.
After Cliff Dixon’s
bucket with 2 seconds remaining pulled HCC within 79-77, Garden City’s
Reggie Davis missed two free throws and Austin Bond’s half-court heave
didn’t’ miss by much.
“We have a lot of good
players on this team,” Dixon said. “Darius fouled out, so it was time
for somebody else to step up. Tom hit a couple of shots; Ty got an
“and-one.’ Others stepped up. We tried to feed off of it and it just
wasn’t enough.”
Dixon scored a
season-high 29 points on 11 of 20 shooting. He added nine rebounds, two
steals and a blocked shot. Johnson-Odom finished with 23 points. Tom
Shirley and Dominique Rutledge finished with seven points each.
After shooting just 27.3
percent in the first half, the Blue Dragons finished at 47.4 percent for
the game (27 of 57), including 5 of 16 from 3-point range. The Dragons
were 18 of 27 from the free-throw line. They were outrebounded 41-33.
“We didn’t play well in
the first half,” Swanson said. “Our biggest problem in the first half
was we weren’t making shots. We had good looks and we just didn’t knock
them down. We have up too many offensive rebounds. We had good looks,
but if we could have controlled the boards better, I think we would have
won the game.”
Richard Thomas hit four
of Garden City’s six 3-point goals and finished with a team-high 22
points. Thomas Manzano was 10 of 15 shooting and finished with 21
points. Travis Burley had 12 and Deon Anderson had 10 points for the
Busters.
Garden City was 32 of 67
shooting (47.8 percent), including 6 of 18 from 3-point range and 9 of
18 from the free-throw line. Garden City had 16 turnovers.
HCC has a miserable
start to the first half with only two field goals in the first 10
minutes. Still when Dixon’s jumper with 8:37 to play – HCC’s third of
the game – the Dragons trailed just 20-12.
Garden City then wont on
a 12-3 run and led 32-15 with 5:13 left in the half on a Thomas
3-pointer. HCC scored five straight to pull within 12, but another
Thomas trey with 41 seconds left in the half gave Garden City at 39-23
lead at halftime.
Hutch opened the second
half on a 10-3 run to pull within nine, but Garden City countered with a
quick 6-0 spurt several minutes later to build its largest lead of 18
(60-42) with 12:20 to play on a Manzano hoop.
Johnson-Odom then put
the Blue Dragons on his back, scoring 12 consecutive points and
accounting for 15 during an 18-6 HCC run that pulled the Dragons within
66-60 after a Johnson-Odom trey with 6:32 to go.
Trailing 72-62,
Johnson-Odom bucket on a drive to the hoop was wiped out on an offensive
foul. After Thomas hit a pair of technical free throws, the Dragons
trailed by 12 with 4:52 remaining.
The Dragons chipped away
and got it down to 77-75 with 21 seconds to play on a Shirley hoop.
Garden City then broke Hutch’s press and got a Thomas dunk with 9
seconds for a 79-75 lead. Dixon scored with 2 seconds left to cut the
deficit back to 79-77. Davis then missed two free throws and Bond’s
last-second shot from half-court barely missed the mark.
The Blue Dragons will
attempt to snap their skid on Wednesday night against Butler at the
Sports Arena.
GAME NOTES
– HCC is now 117-44 all-time vs. Garden
City, 43-33 in Garden City. … HCC falls to 2-6 on the road, just 1-5 in
league play away from home. … Garden City’s Bob Wesley had 10 assists;
the most any single player has had against HCC this season. … Garden
City’s 19 assists were a team high against HCC. … Johnson-Odom posted
his 16th 20-point game of the season.
BOXSCORE
OTHER QUOTES
Head Coach Ryan
Swanson
On the reasons for
the slow starts …
“Everybody is trying so
hard, it makes it harder to make shots when you are pressing in your
mind. We have to find a way to relax. In the second half, we did that.
Austin made a shot; Cliff made shots, Darius made shots. We had great
ball movement and only four turnovers and we scored 54 points.”
On how the team
played after Johnson-Odom fouled out …
“It showed a lot of guts
to come back like we did after Darius fouled out.”
Freshman Darius
Johnson-Odom
On the reasons for
the slow starts …
“We start off slow and
we aren’t as mentally ready as we should be. We just can’t get it going
in the first half. It hurts that we lost the game by not playing as hard
as we did in the first half as we did the second half.”
Sophomore Cliff Dixon
On the reasons for
the slow starts …
“I don’t know why we are
starting off slow. We have to figure it out as a team. We have to get it
together in the first half. We’ve proven we can do it in the second
half. We have to figure it out. Every loss is tough. But to be down 16
at half, come back and lose only by two. That’s really tough.”
