By Steve Carpenter

HCC Sports Information Director

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Alonzo Louis scored with 20 seconds remaining to take the lead and the McCook Community College Indians made two stops in the final seconds to shock the 20th-ranked Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team in a 70-68 victory over the Blue Dragons on Saturday night at the Airport Steakhouse Classic at the Sports Arena.

An exhausted Blue Dragon team – playing its second-straight game against a smaller, but deep team, led by 67-60 with 4:32 to go, but McCook made several tough shots down the stretch, taking a 68-67 lead with 2:48 left on a contested fadeaway Myron Mingo 3-pointer.

After Tom Shirley tied the game at 68-all with a free throw, Louis drove to the hoop and somehow hit a contested shot to lead 70-68 with 20 seconds to play. HCC got two looks on its final possession, including an open 3-pointer by Austin Bond, but the shot was a big strong and McCook’s players had a wild celebration at center court with the Dragons looking on.

It was McCook’s first-ever victory over Hutchinson in five all-time meetings.

“Our players saw first hand how hard players are going try and beat them on our home floor,” HCC head coach Ryan Swanson said. “To watch their celebration after the game, our guys saw how important it was to beat us. That’s the kind of effort we are going to get from every team. If we aren’t ready to match that effort and intensity, then we set ourselves up to get beat.”

The Blue Dragons (7-1) had their poorest single game of the season in the second half. After building a 44-35 halftime lead, the Dragons hit just 8 of 33 shots in the second half against a changing McCook zone defense. Meanwhile, McCook shot 56 percent (14 of 25) in the final 20 minutes after shooting just 36.8 percent in the opening half. McCook outscored Hutch 35-24 in the second half. Hutchinson scored just 18 points in the final 16 minutes of the game.

“I can’t remember when was the last time we let a team shoot 50 percent in a half,” Swanson said. “We held them to 36 in the first half and 56 in the second half. We got tired and gave them some easy ones and you have to give them a lot of credit. They stepped up and made some tough shots.”

Freshman Darius Johnson-Odom played the entire 40 minutes after playing more than 38 minutes on Friday night with the absence of Lazarius Johnson, who missed his second-straight game. Johnson finished with 24 points, hitting 13 of 13 free throws.

Four Dragons scored in double figures. Sophomore Devon McBride had 13 points and five rebounds. Cliff Dixon and Shirley had 11 points and seven rebounds each.

HCC shot a season-low 31 percent (18 of 58), just 1 of 14 from 3-point range. HCC was 31 of 37 from the free-throw line. The Dragons had a season-low 10 turnovers and a season-low nine assists.

Rebounding was even at 41-41.

McCook finished 28 of 63 shooting (44.4 percent) and was 5 of 21 from 3-point range. The Indians were 9 of 17 from the free-throw line and committed only 12 turnovers.

Trey Mosby scored 20 points to lead McCook. Mingo hit 4 of 9 3-point goals and had 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Ronnell Grant added 10 for McCook.

HCC had an early 16-9 lead, but that was quickly erased. A Marcus Landry bucket gave McCook its first lead of the game at 24-23 with 7:53 to play, the HCC answered right back with two Shirley free throws to retake the lead.

Leading 34-33, HCC went on a 10-0 run, eight of the points came from the foul line, and to build a 44-33 lead with 38 seconds left in the first half. McCook hit the final bucket of the half, but HCC still led 44-35 at the break.

With Hutch up 50-39 with 18:05 to play in the second half, McCook made its climb back into the game with a small 7-1 run to pull within 50-46 after a Deshawn Howard layup with 15;47 to go. A Mosby trey with 6:57 to play cut the HCC lead to 59-58, but the Dragons answered that challenge and pushed the lead back to 67-60 with 4:32 after a Shirley field goal, HCC’s last of the game.

Mingo hit two contested treys to grab the lead back. Then with the game tied at 68-all, Louis made his drive for the game-winning points.

The Blue Dragons have a week off before playing a single game against Jayhawk East opponent Highland at 7 p.m. next Saturday night at the Sports Arena.

GAME NOTES – HCC is now 4-1 against McCook. … This was the first meeting with McCook since 1992. … Austin Bond had a career-high five assists. … HCC was just 1 of 22 from the 3-point line in the two Airport Steakhouse Classic games. … This was the first time all season that HCC has allowed an opponent to shoot better than 40 percent.

 

BOXSCORE

NORTH LAKE-CLARENDON BOXSCORE

PHOTO GALLERY

 

OTHER QUOTES

Head Coach Ryan Swanson

On the fatigue factor …

“Darius playing 79 minutes in two games against the competition that we were playing, he in particular ran out of gas. Unfortunately tonight we had no other alternatives.”

 

On the final play selection …

“We figured that’s what we were going to look at. We wanted to throw a lob inside first, but we thought they would pack it in. We got it to Tom, he got it back to Austin, who had an open look at a three. That was great look for that little of time.”

 

On the Blue Dragon players …

“We need all of our players. We need everyone to take care of responsibilities off the court to get on the court. We need to be at full strength.”

 

Freshman Darius Johnson-Odom

On the fatigue factor …

“We were a little worn out, but that 2-3 zone, we didn’t find ways to get around it. We didn’t have a good shooting night and the shot 56 percent in the second half. We have to step it up on defense.”

 

On playing against the zone defense of McCook …

“It was tough offensively because were weren’t getting shots against that zone. They were making it hard on us, plus they shot so good that we weren’t getting steals and scoring easy baskets.”

 

On what the team learned from this loss …

“We can’t take anybody lightly. You have to respect all comers, no matter who we play.”