By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Saturday, November 1, 2008
The 20th-ranked
Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team became the third
NJCAA program to reach the 1,500 victory-plateau with a decisive victory
in the final game of the 2008 Quarterback Classic on Saturday night at
the Sports Arena.
Sophomore Cliff Dixon
led four Blue Dragons in double figures with 19 points as Hutchinson
survived a huge first-half Labette run in a 79-57 victory over the
Cardinals. HCC closes the Quarterback Classic 2-0.
The Blue Dragons join
Southeastern Iowa and Moberly as the only NJCAA teams with 1,500
victories.
“I came here to win,”
said sophomore transfer Devon McBride. “I could have went other places
and done alright. I came here to win and to be a part of tradition. It
was a big night.”
The Blue Dragons raced
out to a 20-2 lead after the first 7 minutes, 25 seconds, holding
Labette (0-2) to 1 of 20 shooting to start the game. The Cardinals then
scored 17 unanswered points, which started a 22-2 run that gave Labette
a 24-23 lead with 3:43 to play in the opening half. HCC recovered from
that to close the half on a 12-4 run to take control.
“We talked about
consistency,” HCC head coach Ryan Swanson said. “Anytime you are up
20-2, you’ve done a lot of things well. Then you look up again and you
are down one, it’s not very consistent. It something that we knew we
would have to improve on.”
Added HCC freshman Tom
Shirley: “We had a little run at the beginning of the game where we were
working really well and everything was working. Then we got
lackadaisical and they went on a 17-0 run. We can’t let that happen
anymore. We have to be consistent.”
The Blue Dragons
finished the game shooting 45.3 percent (29 of 64) for the game. After
going 0 of 6 from long range in the first half, HCC was 4 of 17 from the
3-point line. After missing just 4 of 22 free throws against the St.
Mary JV on Friday, Hutch struggled from the free-throw line against
Labette, shooting just 17 of 37 from the stripe. The Dragons
outrebounded Labette 51-45.
Dixon was 8 of 13
shooting to finish with a game-high 19 points. McBride and Darius
Johnson-Odom finished with 14 points each. Johnson-Odom just missed a
triple-double, finishing with nine rebounds and eight assists. Freshman
Lazarius Johnson had 11 points.
Shirley finished with
seven points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
“We haven’t reached
where we can be,” McBride said. “We have a bunch of guys who can do so
many different things. We are learning. We’ve only been working together
for a couple of months. You will see us get better each and every game.”
The Dragons limited
Labette to 28.8 percent overall shooting (19 of 66) and forced 20
turnovers. The Cardinals were 3 of 18 from 3-point range and 16 of 23
from the free-throw line. Kendall Driver had 12 points to lead Labette.
The Dragons were sharp
early scoring the first seven points of the game and raced out to a 20-2
lead with 12:35 to play in the half. Then Labette, which was upset by
the Friends University Junior Varsity on Friday, started to outplay HCC.
The Cardinals scored 17 straight points to pull within 20-19 on a Terry
Dawson bucket with 6:07 to play. A Dixon hoop with 5:40 to go in the
half stopped the Labette run, but the Cardinals took a 24-23 lead on two
Stedmon Harper free throws with 3:43 to play in the half.
Then reserve guard Cody
Beaton provided a needed spark late in the first half. Beaton dished out
assists on three-straight possessions to Dixon, Johnson and Shirley –
the pass to Dixon was a thunderous alley-oop dunk – to spark a 12-4 run
to close the half for a 35-28 lead at intermission.
Hutch was never
threatened in the second half. The Dragons finally wore down Labette
with just under 7 minutes to play when they went on a 8-0 run that
pushed the lead to over 20 points for the first time. Their larges lead
of the game was 25 points at 73-48.
The Blue Dragons will
play host to the three-day Grand Prairie Hotel Classic beginning
Thursday at the Sports Arena.
GAME NOTES
– A moment of silence was held before
the game to honor longtime fan John Perry, who died on Wednesday. The
team gave Janet Perry, John’s wife of 43 years, the game ball after the
game. … HCC won its 10th consecutive game over Labette and is
now 25-11 all-time against the Cardinals. … HCC’s bench outscored
Labette’s 33-18. … HCC held both of its Quarterback Classic opponents to
a combined 31.2 percent shooting (39 of 125).
HCC-LABETTE
BOXSCORE
OTHER QUOTES
Head Coach Ryan
Swanson
On Labette’s
first-half run …
”They started playing a
little harder than we did. Sometimes that inexcusable, but that’s what
happens when things go so well early. Sometimes you forget it took a lot
of effort to get that lead. You start trying to take shortcuts and the
first one you take is effort and it showed.”
On Tom Shirley …
“There’s a reason why I
have bragged on Tom since day one. He’s a legitimate in-state Division I
player with a high basketball IQ. He understands what we want out of
him. Tom is our most consistent player.”
Freshman Tom Shirley
On Labette’s
first-half run …
“We let down in our
effort. We thought we had it on the bag and they showed us and came back
and made it a game. We’ve got to keep our effort up the entire game.”
Sophomore Devon McBride
On staying consistent
…
“Just coming back from
injury, sometimes I feel myself just running around going through the
motions. Coach said that we have to go out there and play hard and give
it your all. If I am giving it my all and help out other guys. We do
that; we can go out and win.”
