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Dragon slayers: Broncbusters avenge January loss to Hutchinson with 79-77 victory
Published 2/9/2009 in Sports : GCCC
By MIKE KESSINGER
In the final 10 minutes, Hutchinson Community College gave Garden City every chance to pull away for a blowout Saturday night at Perryman Athletic Complex.
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Brad Nading/Telegram — Garden City Community College's Richard Thomas, right, drives under the bucket along the baseline for a basket past Hutchinson's Ryan Douvier Saturday at Perryman Athletic Complex.
Instead the Broncbusters settled for a 79-77 Jayhawk Conference Western Division win.
It was a victory that left Broncbusters' head coach Kris Baumann holding his head in his hands just as he has done many times this season. And the team gave him quite a few reasons to Saturday. Most of the head holding moments coming before the final 10 minutes.
"This is about reminiscent of our year," Baumann said. "I mean it really is. We get up and we blow big leads. The biggest thing we're trying to stress right now is 'Am I getting better as a player everyday, and are we getting better as a team?' In the first half I thought there was no question, I thought we had some guys step up. I thought our team basketball was very, very good. I thought in the second half, I told the guys, we regressed right back to where we were in the first part of the season. We can't put teams away."
* Garden City led 39-23 at halftime, and two minutes, 31 seconds into the second half, the Blue Dragons had cut the deficit to nine with the help of four Garden City turnovers. The Broncbusters had three turnovers in the first half.
* The Busters built the lead back up to 58-40, only to watch Hutchinson crawl back into the game behind the leadership of freshman guard Darius Johnson-Odom, who scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half. With 7:45 to go Johnson-Odom scored a fastbreak dunk to make it an 11-point game, then was slapped with a technical foul for hanging on the rim.
* Hutchinson trailed by 10 with 4:52 when Johnson-Odom was called for his fifth foul and Blue Dragon head coach Ryan Swanson with given a technical for arguing the call. The Dragons' most productive player to that point leaving didn't do much to help Garden City's cause as 6-foot-9 sophomore forward Cliff Dixon took over from there. Dixon, who is the half-brother of Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant, single-handedly lifted Hutchinson back into the game.
* With Dixon and the Dragons chipping away at the deficit, the Busters' Richard Thomas lofted an alley-oop pass that went too high and stuck in between a bar and the top of the backboard. Thomas walked down court scratching his head, Baumann held his.
* With 1.5 seconds to go, Reggie Davis had a chance to seal the win for Garden City with a pair of free throws, but missed them both.
The good news for the Busters was Austin Bond's halfcourt heave for Hutchinson at the buzzer fell well short of the mark.
"Until we do that (put teams away) we can't be an elite team in this league until you figure out how to put teams away, especially at home," Baumman said.
As numb as Baumann may have felt in the second half, the Busters' performance was reverse in the first half. Garden City's defense hounded the Dragons into several problems. On the offensive end, the Busters received contributions from everywhere as Thomas started out strong with 16 first half points. Guard Thomas Manzano came off the bench six minutes into the game and gave a huge lift as did 6-5 freshman forward Kevin Burley, who had two thunderous dunks in the first half.
"It's a really good feeling," Burley said of when he dunks. "It really gets me going, and gets us more energy. If I don't dunk, I still get energy, but it helps (to dunk)."
Garden City (16-8. 6-4) jumped out to a 20-8 lead, then led 32-15 with less than five minutes left in the half on a Thomas 3-pointer. Thomas' final of four shots behind the 3-point line in the first half came with 40 seconds to go before intermission.
"We just have to keep coming to practice and keep getting better and better," Burley said.
Burley was one of four Busters in double-figure scoring as he had 12 point on a 5-of-7 performance from the floor, he also grabbed seven rebounds. Thomas led the Busters with 22 points, Manzano had 21 and DeRon Anderson added 10.
Dixon paced Hutchinson (16-9, 5-6) with 29 points, more than 10 of those points came in the final five minutes. Johnson-Odom was the only other Dragon in double-figures as he had 23.
Garden City will be back on the road Wednesday for a 7:30 p.m. start against Barton County, who is first in the conference standings.
GCCC 79, Hutchinson 77
HUTCHINSON -- Johnson-Odom 6-13 8-9 23, Dixon 11-20 7-9 29, Williams 1-2 2-2 4, Banks 0-0 0-0 0, Rutledge 3-5 1-5 7, Johnson 2-4 0-3 4, Shirley 3-9 0-0 7, Beaton 0-0 0-0 0, Bond 1-3 0-0 3, Douvier 0-0 0-0 0. Totals -- 27-56 18-28 77.
GCCC - Anderson 5-10 0-0 10. Wesley 2-6 2-2 7, Davis 0-0 1-4 1, Thomas 7-16 4-6 22, Ottley 3-7 0-0 6, Manzano 10-15 0-2 21, Williams 0-6 0-0 0, Burley 5-7 2-4 12, Jackson 0-2 0-0 0. Totals -- 32-69 9-18 79.
Halftime -- GCCC, 39-23. 3-Point goals -- Hutch 5-15 (Odom-Johnson 3-7, Shirley 1-5, Bond 1-1, Johnson 0-2); GCCC 6-17 (Thomas 4-7, Wesley 1-2, Manzano 1-1, Williams 0-4, Anderson 0-2, Ottley 0-1). Rebounds -- Hutch 34 (Dixon 10); GCCC 41 (Anderson, Burley 7). Fouled out -- Hutch, Odom-Anderson. Assists -- Hutch 7 (Odom-Johnson 3); GCCC 13 (Wesley 8). Blocks -- Hutch 4 (Four with one); GCCC 3 (Three with one). Steals -- Hutch 5 (Bond 2); GCCC 6 (Wesley 3). Turnovers -- Hutch 14, GCCC 14. Total fouls -- Hutch 16, GCCC 19.
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