Feb 09, 2020

Blue Dragons get needed win, Defeat Garden City

Posted Feb 09, 2020 2:47 PM
Clarence King scored a career-high 16 points to lead the Blue Dragon men to an 82-68 Jayhawk West win over Garden City on Saturday at the Sports Arena. (Nathan Addis/Blue Dragon Sports Information)
Clarence King scored a career-high 16 points to lead the Blue Dragon men to an 82-68 Jayhawk West win over Garden City on Saturday at the Sports Arena. (Nathan Addis/Blue Dragon Sports Information)

STEVE CARPENTER - Hutchinson CC Sports Information

HUTCHINSON, Kan - The Hutchinson Community College men's basketball team shot better than 50 percent in a game for the 14th time this season and earned a crucial Jayhawk West victory on Saturday afternoon.

Five players scored in double figures and all 12 Blue Dragons suited up scored points as Hutchinson defeated Garden City 82-68 at the Sports Arena. The Blue Dragons were playing their first Saturday matinee at the Sports Arena since 2008.

Hutchinson improves to 18-7 overall and 9-7 in the Jayhawk West and earned a 2020 series sweep over the Broncbusters. The Blue Dragons strengthened their hold on fourth place in the Jayhawk West. Pratt defeated Seward County on Saturday and Hutch now has a two-game lead over fifth-place Seward County with five games to play in the regular season.

The Blue Dragons play host to Pratt at 7:30 p.m. on Monday at the Sports Arena.

Leading 10-8 with 14:22 remaining in the first half, the Blue Dragons caught fire with 12 unanswered points over the next 3 minutes and led 22-8 on a Matt Mayers' tip-in with 10:55 to play. Tyler Brown made it 31-14 Blue Dragons with 5:44 to play in the half. Back-to-back layups by Brown an Frankyn Batista gave the Blue Dragons a 39-16 lead with 3:14 remaining.

Hutchinson hit 20 of 34 total shot in the first half (58.8 percent) and held Garden City to 9 of 33 shooting (27.3 percent) as Hutchinson had full control of the game leading 46-23 at halftime.

Freshman Clarence King came off the bench to spark the Blue Dragons and score a career-high 16 points on 6 of 7 shooting in 19 minutes. King also had four rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Freshman Majok Kuath had 13 points on 5 of 6 shooting with five rebounds and three steals.

Sophomore Saquan Singleton had 12 points and nine rebounds. D.J. Mitchell had 12 points and Brown finished with 11 points and a career-high eight rebounds.

The Blue Dragons shot 55.2 percent for the game (20 of 34) from the field. Hutch had a season-low one 3-point goal on just nine attempts and hit 17 of 29 from the free-throw line. The Dragons owned a 41-31 rebounding advantage and dished out 16 assists.

Garden City's Tahlik Chavez, the Jayhawk Conference's leading scorer, became the third opponent to score 30 points against the Blue Dragons, going for 31 points on 9 of 18 shooting with 6 of 13 from 3-poin range. Those six treys tie an individual opponent high against the Dragons this season.

Michael Frazier had 17 points and nine rebounds. The Busters shot 38.3 percent for the game (23 of 60, hitting 9 of 26 from distance and 13 of 17 from the free-throw line. Garden City had 17 turnovers.

Garden City outscored Hutchinson 45-36 in the second half. The closest Garden City got was 12 points at 62-50 with 8:32 remaining in the period.

The Blue Dragons overcame the 24-point Garden City advantage on 3-pointers by outscoring the Busters 56-20 in the paint.

GAME NOTES â€“ The Blue Dragons are now 137-49 all-time against Garden City, including 74-10 in games played in Hutchinson. … This was all-time win No. 1,824. … The Blue Dragons held an opponent to less than 40 percent shooting for the 16th time this season. …