The Garden City Telegram
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Busters grab first conference victory
Published 1/18/2010 in Sports
By MIKE KESSINGER
mkessinger@gctelegram.com
The Garden City Community College men's basketball team could finally smile a little and breathe a sigh of relief.
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Brad Nading/Telegram Garden City Community College's Travis Burley, left, hauls in a pass along the lane as Colby's Michael Morris defends Saturday at Perryman Athletic Complex. The Broncbusters won the game, 68-57.
If anything, the Broncbusters had reason enough to enjoy the moment in Perryman Athletic Complex after a 68-57 win against Colby on Saturday. It had not been since last season that they had won a Jayhawk Conference Western Division game, starting 0-2 this year. But Saturday, the Busters came through with a balanced effort, leading from the start and never looking back.
"I thought they played closer that the way our coaching staff wants them to play," GCCC coach Kris Baumann said of his team. "I thought Solomon Brown had an outstanding game. I thought Travis (Burley) had an outstanding game, and Bobby (Wesley) played really good. "We had some key contributors, I though Mike Morales was good, he got his first start of the year and he played really well. I thought we really looked like a basketball team."
Baumann went deep into his bench early using all 12 players in the first half. GCCC (10-7, 1-2) jumped out to a 5-0 lead after a Chris McHenry 3-pointer, and other than four straight points Colby followed with, the Trojans were never that close again.
"The focus was we just had to get a win," Brown said. "We're last in the conference and we know we have more talent than that. We were 0-2 and we were just coming in here with the mentality that we can't lose no more games. We make too many turnovers, we don't listen to our coach enough to win."
Following a 14-point breakout performance against Barton County on Wednesday, Brown came way with seven points againt Colby (6-12, 0-4) as he joined Wesley and McHenry at the starting guard spots.
The Busters led by as much as 20-8 before halftime on a thunderous one-handed slam by Burley. With 12 seconds left in the half, Andre Phillips drained the first of his two 3-pointers, putting GCCC up 27-16 at the break.
"In practice we've been focusing on listening to coach and executing what we need to execute and eliminate all the mistakes," Brown said. "We came in here and did it for the most part, which is the most important part. We got the win."
Colby cut the deficit to eight on a couple of occasions in the second half, but couldn't get any closer. The first time the Trojans cut it to eight was on a Regis Schafer trey to make it 33-25, but Phillips answered with a three for GCCC. The Busters lead reached reached
The Busters lead reached its highest at at 68-53 with just more than a minute to play on a McHenry steal and layup. Colby scored the final four points.
McHenry paced the Busters with 12 points, and sophomore center Martel Jackson added eight.
Schafer led Colby with 15 points. He was followed by Aireus Stephenson with 11, and Jose Pena-Benjamin scored 10.
"We basically won a game we were supposed to win at home," Baumann said. "I'm not ready to pat us on the back yet."
The Busters will be back on their home court tonight against Hutchinson for a make-up game that was scheduled for Dec. 9, but postponed because of inclement weather. The game tips-off at 7:30 p.m.
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GCCC 68, Colby 57
COLBY (6-12, 0-4) -- Pena-Benjamin 4-9 2-2 10, Stephenson 5-18 0-0 11, Michelson 2-7 4-4 8, Woofter 1-1 1-2 3, Schafer 3-14 6-7 15, Danner 0-2 0-0 0, Stover 0-2 0-0 0, Brewer 0-1 0-0 0, Morris 4-6 2-2 10. Totals -- 19-60 15-17 57.
GCCC (10-7, 1-2) -- Morales 2-4 0-0 4, Jackson 4-8 0-2 8, McHenry 5-12 0-0 12, Wesley 3-3 1-2 7, Brown 3-8 0-0 7, Jirmnson 1-5 2-2 4, Farris 0-1 0-0 0, Griffin 1-2 3-4 5, Banks 3-6 1-2 8, Phillips 2-2 1-3 7, Cobb 0-0 0-0 0, Burley 3-5 0-0 6. Totals -- 27-56 8-15 67.
Halftime -- GCCC, 27-16. 3-pointers -- Colby 4-24 (Schafer 3-10, Stephenson 1-8, Pena-Benjamin 0-2, Danner 0-2, Stover 0-2); GCCC 6-23 (McHenry 2-8, Phillips 2-2, Brown 1-6, Banks 1-2, Jirmnson 0-3, Farris 0-1, Griffin 0-1). Rebounds -- Colby 35 (Morris 8); GCCC 38 (Burley 9). Assists -- Colby 9 (Pena-Benjamin 5); GCCC 13 (Wesley 4). Blocks -- Colby 2 (Morris 2); GCCC 1 (Jackson 1). Steals -- Colby 10 (Pena-Benjamin, Scahfer 3). Fouled out -- None. Team fouls -- Colby 14, GCCC 17. Turnovers -- Colby 15, GCCC 13.
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