By Steve Carpenter

HCC Sports Information Director

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

GREAT BEND – The Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team had no answers for Barton’s Nykia Williams on Wednesday night as the No. 13 Cougars moved closer to the Jayhawk West championship with an 81-69 victory over the Blue Dragons on Wednesday night at the Barton Gym.

Williams scored 29 points on 9 of 13 shooting and was 11 of 15 from the free-throw line to lead first-place Barton (24-4, 11-3 Jayhawk West).

Williams’ effort overshadowed the career night for Blue Dragon sophomore Austin Bond, who finished with 15 points on a perfect 6 of 6 shooting, including three 3-point goals.

“Offensively, Austin was fantastic,” HCC head coach Ryan Swanson said. “He didn’t take a bad shot. He never gets discouraged and he works hard in practice. That’s a great sign for us getting Austin untracked because he can help stretch defenses.”

Hutchinson (17-10, 6-7) dropped its sixth-straight road game and fell into seventh place in the Jayhawk West. Still, the Blue Dragons remain in the hunt from a home first-round Region VI game. They are just one game out of third place.

Freshman Darius Johnson-Odom was the Lady Dragons’ leading scorer with 22 points to go with four assists and two steals. Sophomore Cliff Dixon had a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.

The Blue Dragons shot 41.7 percent for the game (25 of 60) and was 7 of 17 from 3-point range and 12 of 24 from the free-throw line. The Blue Dragons had 12 turnovers and were outrebounded 44-38.

Williams posted a double-double in leading the Cougars. He also had 11 rebounds and four blocked shots.

“Our post players did a very poor job of guarding Williams,” Swanson said. “He’s a really good player, but if we hold him in check in the first half, it’s a different game. We wore down in the second half and started reaching and we put them to the free-throw line.”

Chip Steven buried four 3-point goals and finished with 12 points. Corey Bingham had 11 points and Josh Martin added 10.

The Cougars were 25 of 57 overall (43.9 percent), including 5 of 14 from 3-point range and 26 of 40 from the free-throw line. Barton also had 12 turnovers.

“Our transition defense just wasn’t as good as it was the first time we played them at home,” Bond said comparing the first game to Wednesday night. “If we would have eliminated all the easy baskets we gave up, this would have been a really close game.”

The Dragons got off to a solid start taking a 9-3 lead on a Johnson-Odom field goal with 16:59 to play in the opening half. HCC then went the next 5 minutes, 45 seconds without a field goal and fell behind by three points before Bond stopped the drought with a 3-pointer to tie the game at 19-all with 11:14 to play in the half.

There were eight lead changes in the final half, the final one coming with 4:18 to play when a Williams dunk gave Barton a 28-27 lead with 4:18 to play. The Dragons with on a 4 minute, 36 second scoreless drought and trailed 36-29 at halftime.

HCC scored the first six points of the second half to pull within 36-35 with 18:29 to play, but a Williams three-point play stopped that Dragon rally. Johnson-Odom buried a 3-pointer with 12:32 to play to again cut the Barton lead to one at 12:32 to play, but the Cougars again answered the challenge.

Hutch suffered through another extended streak without a field goal and saw the Cougars build a 67-55 lead with 6:02 remaining. The closest the Dragons got after that was nine points.

HCC will play host to Colby at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.

GAME NOTES – The Dragons are now 73-14 vs. Barton and 27-13 in Great Bend. … Johnson-Odom moved up to fifth place on the HCC freshman scoring list with 472 points. … HCC has lost three straight in Great Bend. … HCC is now 2-7 on the road this season. … Dixon posted his seventh double-double of the season and 21st of his collegiate career.

 

BOXSCORE

 

OTHER QUOTES

Head Coach Ryan Swanson

On the choppy pace of the game …

“There was a ton of emotion. There were a lot of nerves. They were excited. We were excited. It was a tough environment to play in. The less flow a game has, the better chance we have to win because of the way we are built. We want to try and do a really good job defensively and offensively we want to be patient. They had a couple of good runs where we didn’t defend and they got some transition baskets.”

 

Sophomore Austin Bond

On the pace of the game …

“It was a fast-paced game. Whenever we needed to do something, we were able to get into a half-court set like we wanted to.”

 

On the pace that HCC plays most comfortable at …

“There’s no set number. We have the talent to win any kind of game there is. We thrive when our defense holds teams to less than 70 points.”