The Garden City Telegram

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Busters will way to third straight victory

Published 2/6/2012 in Sports

By ADAM HOLT

aholt@gctelegram.com

Chauncy Williams described the Garden City Community College men's basketball team as a "family."

So with two key Broncbusters grounded from the game by dad, Williams and his family simply buckled down and willed their way to a third straight win.

Four Busters scored in double figures, and Williams had 29 points and seven 3-pointers for the second-consecutive game as Garden City beat Butler, 80-73, at the Perryman Athletic Complex on Saturday night.

Garden City head coach Kris Baumann suspended leading scorer Geron Johnson and Carl Porter for one game for an unspecified violation. But several players stepped up and made sure the Busters' recent turnaround wouldn't hit a snag.

"I couldn't be prouder of the eight guys that played," Baumann said. "I thought they did a tremendous job."

The Grizzlies (8-15, 2-7 Jayhawk Conference) had a 41-40 lead just under four minutes into the second half, but the Busters (17-6, 5-4) would end up going ahead 50-45 behind a Williams' 3-pointer and hold off Butler for the rest of the game.

Garden City got a big play by tipping a Butler inbounds pass, letting Williams score a fastbreak layup and give the Busters a 67-60 lead with 4:49 to play.

"I thought that was kind of the back-breaker for us, and I thought that got us over the hump because it got us out of that scary zone we were in," Baumann said.

Williams replicated his 7-of-14 from behind the arc performance from last week and helped ensure the Busters wouldn't miss the 19.7 points Johnson averages per game.

"I've been in the gym lately. A couple of our players went down, so I most definitely had to step up, make big shots again," Williams said.

"That's a big time performance in back-to-back conference games when you need to win," Baumann said. "I couldn't be happier with the career he's put together here, and what he's stood for. He's a winner, man."

Williams got big-time support from some unlikely sources. The Busters got big contributions from point guard Sieven Bryant (12 points, 4-of-5 3-pointers), Xavier Carter (12 points) and Silas Mills (15 points). None of the three entered the game averaging more than 6.5 points per game.

Baumann also praised the play of guard Chase Clancy, who played big minutes when Bryant was out with cramps. Clancy also hit a big 3-pointer and finished with five points.

Mills and Carter also continued a recent stretch of effective play, and the 6-foot-8 Mills helped get the Busters out to a 9-1 lead to begin the game with a big dunk for Garden City's first points.

And impressively, the Busters closed out the game effectively, limiting their turnovers and making their free throws, to ensure the Grizzlies wouldn't creep back into the game like so many of Garden City's previous opponents have been able to do.

"Before ... people would go on huge runs, 12-0 runs, 11-0 runs. Or we'd go on scoring droughts where we wouldn't score for seven minutes," Baumann said. "And those things are kind of going away, because guys are starting to understand a bit."

Baumann and Williams agreed that the win was a big confidence boost for the team. After a 1-3 start to conference play, the Busters' three-game streak has them tied for fourth in the division.

Next, Garden City gets a chance to avenge an 81-72 loss to Hutchinson at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday on the road. If the Busters play the way they did Saturday, the return of Johnson and Porter should have the team playing as well as it has all season.

"You get to this point in the year and the biggest thing is, you want to be playing your best basketball, and I think we're doing that," Baumann said. And that's all that's important."

See boxscore in Scoreboard, Page B2.

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