The Garden City Telegram
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Busters survive late McCook rally
Published 11/25/2009 in Sports
By The Telegram
Suspense at the end of a game is nothing new to the Garden City Community College men's basketball team.
So when the the Broncbusters' 14-point lead with 3:35 was cut to six in less than a minute Tuesday at McCook (Neb.) Junior College, GCCC was in familiar territory. The fortunate part for the Busters, though, was that instead of letting the Indians all the way back, they did just enough to hold on for an 87-77 victory.
It is the Busters second victory against McCook this season, having dispatched them in the season opener three weeks ago in Garden City. Despite the problems they had putting the Indians away, GCCC coach Kris Baumann was happy with his team's overall play.
"We played better tonight," Baumann said. "This was probably the best we've played all season I thought."
The Busters went with an almost completely different starting line-up Tuesday as Avery Jirmnson started in front of Vince Banks at guard, forward Travis Burley took Eric Griffin's spot in the line-up and Ronald Cobb was inserted at the post position, replacing Martel Jackson. Frustrated with his team's lack of production in the Laramie (Wyo.) County tournament over the weekend, Baumann wanted to see if some changes would make a difference. Whether or not it was the changes that made the difference, the Busters played better against McCook than they had earlier in the week at Laramie.
"I thought our biggest thing was defense," Baumann said. "The guys really got after it in the first half and I thought did a really nice job."
The Busters lead grew to 60-41 midway through the second half. McCook (5-4) chipped away at the lead, but never cut the deficit closer than the six. When the Indians made it a 74-68 game with 2:25 left on an Antonio Dye 3-pointer, the Busters responded and expanded the lead to 12 on a pair of Chris McHenry free throws. The closest McCook got from there was eight on an Andrew Hanson 3-pointer with 28 seconds left.
The Busters finished with four players in double-figure scoring. McHenry had 22 points, Banks finished with 16, Griffin had 15 and sophomore point guard Bobby Wesley added a season-high 11 points. GCCC finished 26-of-54 (48 percent) from the floor.
Antonio Dye scored 19 points in the second half for McCook, and finished with game-high 24 points. Hanson hit five 3-pointers on his way to 22 points and Marcus Landry added 11.
The Busters will be back home for the Thanksgiving Classic on Friday and Saturday at Perryman Athletic Complex. GCCC opens against Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division foe Highland on Friday, then take on Frank Phillips (Borger, Texas) on Saturday. Both games start at 7:30 p.m.
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