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Busting out: GCCC men win second straight with victory over Seward

Published 1/29/2009 in Sports : GCCC

By MIKE KESSINGER

mkessinger@gctelegram.com

The opportunity was just too much to pass up.

As the game clock ticked down in its final seconds Wednesday at Perryman Athletic Complex, Trevor Ottley spotted Thomas Manzano headed toward the rim from the right side. Ottley, the Garden City Community College 6-foot-8 forward, stood in the middle of the lane and lofted a soft alley-oop to Manzano. The Broncbuster guard slammed home the final two points of the game with four seconds left, and put an exclamation point to Garden City ending its recent frustrations against Seward County.

The result was a Broncbusters' 68-55 Jayhawk Conference Western Division win against a team Garden City went 0-4 against last year. Ottley was more than happy to get the taste of losing to Seward County out of his mouth. The last defeat the Busters had to the Saints was 63-60 in the quarterfinals of the Region VI tournament a year ago. Seward County went on to win the next two games and advance to the NJCAA national tournament where they placed third.

"It feels like a giant weight off your chest," said Ottley, the lone Buster to have played last season. "That's the one team I wanted to stick it to. For a whole year now I've had that (Region VI) paper posted on my wall when they beat us 63-60. That's the team that stopped our season last year, so I definitely wanted to come back and get a big win on them."

A big win it was, not just because of who it was against, but it was a victory that proved to the Busters they could win at home. Garden City (14-7, 4-3) was 1-2 in conference play at Perryman Athletic Complex before Wednesday, the lone win coming in the conference opener Jan. 7 against Butler.

"I feel good," GCCC head coach Kris Baumann said. "We had a good team effort tonight. I thought we started really, really slow attacking their zone, then we finally got a couple of breaks and got an attacking mentality. Once we did that, we were a lot better tonight."

It couldn't have been much worse for the Busters early as Seward County (16-5, 3-4) built a 23-10 lead and frustrated the Busters with its zone. After a Jon Tassin layup with 6:23 to go before halftime, the Saints had that 13-point advantage. Garden City found its groove, though, and by the three minute mark, the deficit was cut to 26-24 on a DeRon Anderson 3-pointer from the top of the key.

"We didn't want to make that the fifth loss we've had a home," Anderson said. "We just had to close down and play hard, and all we had to do was stop them."

The Busters started to chip away at the Saints' defense in the second half and with 6:10 left, the Busters' Richard Thomas tied the game at 51-all with a fastbreak layup. A Bobby Wesley steal and layup three minutes later gave Garden City a 58-51 lead.

Seward County, who came back from a six-point deficit in the final 1:18 against the Busters last year at Perryman Athletic Complex, started to make things interesting after Wesley's layup. Marcus James sliced through the Busters' defense for a dunk that pulled the Saints to within 59-55. Eight seconds later, James was called for his fifth foul that was debated by Seward County coach Bryan Zollinger, who argued with the referees and scorers' table that it was James' fourth foul. After a few minutes of pleading his case to change James' foul count, Zollinger was denied. Garden City responded by scoring the final seven points, finished by Manzano's dunk from Ottley.

"It was just too easy," Ottley said of the final sequence. "Tom, he can jump out of the gym. He looked at me and I knew it was going to be a great cap to the game. I threw it and Tom did what he does best -- just flew through the air."

Ottley and Richard Thomas tied for game-high scoring honors with 16 points apiece. Anderson added 10 for GCCC. Garden City High School graduate and Lakin native Drew Jones and Thijin Moses paced the Saints with 13 points each.

The Busters will travel to Dodge City on Saturday for a scheduled 8 p.m. tip-off against the Conquistadors at the Dodge City High School gym.

---

GCCC 68, Seward County 55

SEWARD CO. (55) -- Jones 3-4 4-4 13, James 3-8 2-3 8, Smith 2-7 0-0 5, Tassin 2-4 1-4 5, Moses 4-14 4-4 13, Sigala 0-3 0-0 0, Patterson 1-7 0-0 3, Hooks 1-1 0-0 2, Oliviera 3-3 0-1 6. Totals -- 19-51 11-16 55.

GCCC (68) -- Wesley 2-2 2-4 6, Manzano 2-7 3-5 7, Davis 1-3 0-0 2, Thomas 6-15 2-3 16, Ottley 6-9 4-9 16, Anderson 4-8 0-0 10, Stephens 0-1 0-0 0, Williams 3-5 0-0 9, Burley 1-1 0-0 2, Jackson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals -- 25-51 11-21 68.

Halftime: Seward Co. 28-26. 3-Pointers: Seward 6-24 (Jones 3-4, Moses 1-8, Smith 1-6, Patterson 1-3, Sigala 0-3); GCCC 7-17 (Williams 3-3, Thomas 2-6, Anderson 2-4, Manzano 0-3, Stephens 0-1). Rebounds: Seward 27 (Smith, Tassin, Moses 5); GCCC 37 (Ottley 8). Assists: Seward 9 (Smith 3); GCCC 11 (Wesley 6). Blocks: Seward 4 (Moses 3); GCCC 1 (Thomas 1). Steals: Seward 12 (James 3); GCC 10 (Wesley, Manzano, Anderson 2). Turnovers: Seward 18, GCCC 21. Totals fouls - Seward 15, GCCC 17. Fouled out: James.

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