By Steve Carpenter

HCC Sports Information Director

Friday, October 31, 2008

Darius Johnson-Odom had quite a debut for the 20th-ranked Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team, scoring 20 points in the Blue Dragons’ season-opening 86-54 victory over the University of St. Mary Junior Varity in the first night of the 2008 Quarterback Classic at the Sports Arena.

The Blue Dragons are now just one victory away from becoming the third NJCAA basketball program to win 1,500 games. Their first attempt at No. 1,500 will be on Saturday in the Quarterback Classic finale against Labette in a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.

Johnson-Odom, a 6-foot-2 guard from Raleigh, N.C., was 9 of 14 from the field, with a pair of 3-pointers, but he had several dunks that made Blue Dragon fans take notice.

“Darius is extremely talented,” HCC head coach Ryan Swanson said. “He showed how athletic he is tonight. The thing that makes Darius fun to coach is that he’s so competitive and he loves to play basketball. That shows in the way he plays the game.”

After a sluggish first 3 1/2 minutes, the Blue Dragons finally started to click. After trailing by five points early, HCC went on a 23-4 run over an 8-minute span to grab control. The Dragons then shot 54.5 percent from the floor in the second half to extend their lead to as many as 36 points in the second half.

Sophomore Ryan Douvier also had a memorable first HCC start. After seeing limited playing time as a freshman, Douvier was a workhorse for HCC, scoring six points and pulling down a career-high 10 rebounds. Douvier also had two steals.

“Basically I just try to do my best and work hard and do the little stuff,” Douvier said. “I want to fight for rebounds and be tough. I’m probably not going to be making the big plays, but I have to do the little things and make sure everybody is on the same page.”

For the game, the Blue Dragons shot 44.3 percent from the field (31 of 70). HCC was just 6 of 24 from the 3-point line and hit 18 of 22 from the free-throw line (81.8 percent). HCC also had a decisive 49-34 rebounding advantage.

Sophomore Cliff Dixon had 12 points and seven rebounds in just 14 minutes off the bench. Sophomore Devon McBride finished with 12 points in his HCC debut. Redshirt freshman Javari Williams finished with 10 points and seven boards. Freshman Lazarius Johnson had six points and a game-high six assists. Freshman Tom Shirley blocked three shots.

“I think we have the pieces there to be successful at a very high level,” Swanson said. “It’s a long season and our job as coaches is to make sure that we all understand what we need to do individually to be a successful team. That’s developing roles and that’s going to take time. It will constantly evolve, but if we get on the same page and be accepting of roles, we have a chance to be a special team.”

The Blue Dragons held USM (0-1) to 32.8 percent (20 of 61) overall, but just 26.7 percent in the first half (8 of 30). The Spires hit 7 of 24 from long range and were 7 of 11 from the free-throw line. USM committed 25 turnovers.

Justin Crutchfield had 19 points and Derek Weatherly had 10 for the Spires.

USM scored seven of the game’s first nine points in the first 3:36 of the opening half, but the Blue Dragons quickly turned things around.

Freshman Caydrick Bloomquist entered the game and immediately drained a 3-pointer from the left baseline to start an 11-0 run over the next 1 minute, 16 seconds. Two Johnson free throws with 13:51 to play gave Hutch a 13-7 lead.

The Dragons immediately went on another 12-4 run and led 25-11 with 8:52 to play on two Shirley free throws. USM pulled within 25-16 – the last time that the deficit was single digits – with 6:33 to play. After that, McBride scored then Johnson-Odom hit a 3-pointer and threw down a spectacular dunk on back-to-back possessions to lead 30-16 at with 4:03 to play in the opening half.

Hutch led 37-21 at halftime.

A 12-3 HCC run to open the second half pushed the lead to 23 at 47-24 after a McBride 3-pointer. A Johnson bucket with 10:14 to play gave Hutch its first 30-point lead at 63-33.

GAME NOTES – This was the first-ever meeting between HCC and the University of St. Mary. … The Blue Dragons are now 59-19 in season-opening games. … HCC outscored USM 33-17 in points off turnovers. ... USM was a late schedule add after Kaplan University dropped its athletic program in August. … HCC freshman Cody Beaton, who played Blue Dragon tennis last spring, scored his first career points on a 3-pointer. … The Friends University Junior Varsity upset Labette 76-67 in the opening game on Friday night.

 

BOX SCORE

HCC-USM PHOTO GALLERY

 

OTHER QUOTES

Head Coach Ryan Swanson

On Ryan Douvier …

“It’s fun to see Ryan get rewarded. Talk about a kid who never gives up and never gets discouraged. He didn’t play a lot last year, but he made himself a lot better player. He understands more and that’s sometimes a progression of going from his freshman to sophomore year.”

 

Sophomore Ryan Douvier

On what the team showed the fans after Game 1 …

“We are going to work hard and be ready to go. We have to do the little things in practice and make sure it carries over to days.”

 

Freshman Darius Johnson-Odom

On his dunks igniting the crowd …

“I hope to get the crowd into it and it gets the team and bench going. My teammates were getting me open shots and we had a lot of open fastbreak points, so that helped a lot.”

 

On Ryan Douvier …

“Douvier is a hard worker. He does the little things that helps us win. The things he does will help us a lot in the season.”