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Busters stun Blue Dragons in Hutch
Published 2/8/2010 in Sports
By BRAD HALLIER
Special to The Telegram
HUTCHINSON -- It was a tail-whipping befitting a Region 6 champion.
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Jarod Opperman/Hutchinson News Hutchinson Community College's Josh Davis and Garden City's Bobby Wesley get tied up Saturday night during the first half of their game at the Sports Arena.
For one night, the Garden City men were not mired in eighth place, barely hanging on to the last Region 6 Tournament berth. The Broncbusters looked like the reigning champions Saturday at the Sports Arena, spanking first-place Hutchinson 67-54.
The Blue Dragons looked like the team with its season on life support, not a team that had won nine Jayhawk West games in a row and climbed to No. 8 in the nation.
Asked if Garden City simply wanted to win more than Hutch, freshman forward Bruce Reed said, "You could say that. We didn't play hard enough."
It's hard to argue with Reed. Simply put, Garden City dominated the Blue Dragons all over the court.
Let's start with rebounding, where Garden City grabbed 48 to Hutchinson's 20. The Blue Dragons (22-3, 9-2 Jayhawk West) had one offensive rebound. That's right, one, and it was a team rebound, not by an individual.
"That's an amazing stat," HCC coach Steve Eck said. "That showed how they were tougher than us. Not one person got an offensive rebound. That's on me. We got out-coached and out-toughed. They had the edge on us."
Garden City (12-12, 3-7) came into Saturday's game as the seventh-best rebounding team in the Jayhawk West, with an average margin of plus-1.56. Saturday, it was plus-28.
"I thought the key was our bigs battled hard tonight," Garden City coach Kris Baumann said. "Our post guys really brought it."
The Broncbusters, who finished sixth at last year's NJCAA Tournament, took it to Garden City in areas other than rebounding.
Hutchinson shot a season-low 32.6 percent on a season-low 15 made field goals. The Dragons made only 2 of 10 3-pointers, while Garden City took advantage of 11 steals to get 15 points off turnovers and shoot 40.4 percent.
Garden City also had more assists (11-8), blocked shots (6-4) and steals (11-8). The Broncbusters took their 14 offensive rebounds and turned them into nine points.
"It was one of those games," freshman guard Joe Mitchell said. "We weren't making the shots we needed to, and they were scoring at will. It seemed like they got every rebound, too. It was a bad game overall."
For Garden City, it was a performance long time in coming after several close and painstaking conference losses.
"We've been the exact opposite of Hutch," Baumann said. 'They've won their close games while we haven't. We were due, but I didn't think we would do it here."
The first half gave few indications that Garden City was going to roll to just its ninth win against the Blue Dragons on their home floor.
Hutchinson sophomore forward Cortez Barnes provided one of the highlights of the season when he threw down a powerful one-handed dunk over Garden City's Solomon Brown with 6 minutes, 44 seconds left in the half. Three minutes later, Reed, who had a game-high 20 points, scored and Hutch led 23-18.
But Garden City would catch up by halftime, tying the game at 27. Then sophomore guard Bobby Wesley provided a play that Baumann said changed the game.
Hutch had the ball to start the second half, but Wesley stole the inbounds pass, drove to the basket and was fouled. He made both free throws, starting a dominant final 20 minutes for Garden City.
Hutchinson had stretches in the second half of 4:53, 8:37 and 3:06 without a field goal, and made a chilly 20 percent of its shots after the break.
"Face it - we had a bad shooting night," Eck said. "Credit Garden City's defense. But when you make five field goals in the second half, you better do something else good."
That didn't happen.
Hutchinson had little offensive production outside of Reed and Mitchell, who had 16 points. Take those two away, and the rest of the Blue Dragons made 5 of 25 shots and scored 18 points. Reed's four rebounds led the team.
By contrast, nine Busters scored with sophomore Chris McHenry's 17 points leading the way. Sophomore Travis Burley had 13 rebounds and was one of six Busters to have more offensive rebounds than any Blue Dragon. But when no individual has an offensive rebound against the reigning Region 6 champion, that's not a surprise.
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Garden City 67, Hutchinson 54
GARDEN CITY (12-12, 3-7) -- McHenry 4-17 7-8 17, Morales 2-3 1-1 5, Wesley 2-5 5-6 9, Jirmnson 4-7 0-0 9, Farris 0-0 0-0 0, Griffin 2-4 1-2 5, Brown 1-2 0-0 3, Banks 2-4 1-2 5, Phillips 0-0 0-0 0, Burley 3-10 2-4 8, Jackson 3-5 0-0 6. Totals 23-57 17-23 67
HUTCHINSON (22-3, 9-2) -- Stewart 2-9 3-4 7, Frantz 1-4 1-1 3, Barrett 0-2 0-0 0, Mitchell 4-11 7-7 16, Reed 6-10 7-9 20, Flowers 0-4 2-2 2, Barnes 2-4 1-1 5, Davis 0-1 1-4 1, Wade 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 15-46 22-28 54.
Halftime score -- Tied 27-27. 3-point goals -- Garden City 4-15 (McHenry 2-11, Brown 1-1, Jimnson 1-2, Griffin 0-1). Hutchinson 2-10 (Reed 1-2, Mitchell 1-4, Flowers 0-1, Stewart 0-2). Rebounds -- Garden City 48 (Burley 13), Hutchinson 20 (Reed 4). Assists -- Garden City 11 (Wesley 5), Hutchinson 9 (Stewart 4). Turnovers -- Garden City 18, Hutchinson 15. Total fouls -- Garden City 23, Hutchinson 19. Fouled out -- None. Technical fouls -- Griffin, McHenry, Stewart, Hutchinson bench.
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