By Steve Carpenter

HCC Sports Information Director

Friday, November 7, 2008

The backcourt tandem of Darius Johnson-Odom and Lazarius Johnson combined for 31 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists to lead the 20th-ranked Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team to an 82-61 victory over Fort Scott in the second night of the Grand Prairie Hotel Classic on Friday night at the Sports Arena.

Now 2-0 in the Grand Prairie Hotel Classic, the Blue Dragons will meet Weatherford College, also 2-0, at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday with the Classic championship on the line.

Johnson-Odom finished with a season-high 23 points, six rebounds and five assists. Johnson had eight points, a season-high nine rebounds and five assists.

“They can both play the one and both play the two,” HCC head coach Ryan Swanson said. “They are really good players, different players and they complement each other very well. It shows on the floor that they are friends.”

Friday’s victory over Fort Scott was the 50th for Swanson at Hutchinson. He is tied for 10th place on the Blue Dragon coaching list with Tim Duryea.

Sophomore Devon McBride finished with a season-high 16 points for HCC. Sophomore Cliff Dixon had 11 point as seven rebounds.

Freshman Dominique Rutledge had eight points off the bench. Sophomore Austin Bond provided an early offensive spark and finished with seven points.

The Blue Dragons (4-0) shot 48.5 percent overall (32 of 66), hitting 7 of 16 3-point goals and was 10 of 17 from the free-throw line. HCC outrebounded Fort Scott 46-35.

The Dragons had another solid defensive outing, holding a third-straight opponent to less than 40-percent shooting. Fort Scott (1-2) finished shooting 35.4 percent (23 of 65), 4 of 19 from long range and 12 of 17 from the free-throw line. The much-shorter Greyhounds had just 13 turnovers.

Darrell Blanton had 21 points to lead Fort Scott. Kurklin Bohanon had 12 points.

“We played OK defense, but we could have played more intense and physical,” Johnson said. “That will come along with time. We’ve been playing great defensively. We are getting a lot of stops, a lot of deflections and a lot of turnovers and that’s what we want.”

Added Swanson: “Fort Scott is quick and they have good players. They aren’t really tall, so it was a challenge to keep them in front of us.”

The Dragons led 42-26 at halftime, thanks in part to seven first-half 3-pointers, including three from Johnson Odom. The Dragons shot 50 percent in the opening 20 minutes (17 of 34) and held Fort Scott to 33.3 percent (9 of 27).

A Blanton inside bucket with 14:13 to play in the opening half gave Fort Scott a 13-10 lead – the Greyhounds had leads as large as five points in the first half. But the Dragons started to take over from that juncture.

Bond came off the bench and drilled a 3-point goal to tie the game at 13-all with 13:49 to play and Johnson-Odom added a three-point play to take the lead for good 29 seconds later. Those two scores ignited a 26-4 run that ballooned the HCC lead to 36-17 with 3:04 to play after a Johnson-Odom trey.

HCC’s defense held Fort Scott without a field goal for 9 minutes, 58 seconds and to just 2 buckets over the final 10:58 of the first half.

“We just tried to keep them out of the lane because they did a lot of penetrating,” Johnson-Odom said. “We had a lot of help-side defense. We wanted to rotate and get in the right spots.”

The Dragons opened the second half on a 9-2 run to open a 51-28 lead with 16:56 to play. Fort Scott made a couple of small runs, but HCC was able to hold off the Greyhounds. After a Bohanon 3-pointer with 8:17 to play pulled the Hounds within 17 points (64-47), HCC seized the momentum with a 13-3 run to lead 77-50 with 2:16 to play.

GAME NOTES – HCC won its sixth-straight game over Fort Scott and defeated the Greyhounds for the 19th time in 20 games vs. the Greyhounds. … HCC’s bench players are averaging 32 points per game through the first four games. ... Lazarius Johnson played 35:21 and Darius Johnson-Odom played 32:57, season-high minute totals for both players.

 

BOXSCORE

WEATHERFORD-STERLING JV BOX

HCC-FORT SCOTT PHOTO GALLERY

 

OTHER QUOTES

Head Coach Ryan Swanson

On the HCC defensive effort …

“It was really good. The one thing we have this year in our post players is that they are pretty quick-footed. The matchup against smaller teams isn’t going to bother us as much as it has in the past.”

 

On being able to withstand Fort Scott’s runs …

“We have more guys who can go get baskets and put an end to runs. This team did a pretty good job of team defense and didn’t give Fort Scott any easy ones.”

 

Freshman Lazarius Johnson

On working with teammate Darius Johnson-Odom …

“We spend a lot of time together. We are pretty close. He knows how I play and I know how he plays and we feed off of each other.”

 

On playing more than 35 minutes vs. Fort Scott …

We can go all night if that’s what it takes. We go out and go as hard as we can as we can possibly go until we can’t go anymore.

 

Freshman Darius Donovan-Odom

On working with teammate Lazarius Johnson …

“We are roommates and we are always talking about playing hard defense. We have to guard each other in practice. We get the team going with our competitiveness. We play hard together on defense and we rebound well together. We want to help the team out on defense.”