El Dorado, Kan. – Taking the lead with just over three minutes to go in the game, the Dodge City Community College men's basketball team would see their 10-game Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference road winning streak snapped in an 87-85 loss to Butler Community College at the Power Plant on Saturday, Dec. 3.
DC3 is now 7-3 on the year and 4-3 in the KJCCC while the Grizzlies improved to 7-3 overall and 4-3 in the Jayhawk Conference.
The first half saw Butler hold the lead for a majority of the half in what felt like the Grizzlies comfortably holding the lead. Trailing by three six minutes into the game,
Kourtney Ware would tie the game at 17 apiece on an assist by
Trevon Evans. Butler would push their lead back out to seven while going on a 9-2 run forcing a DC3 timeout with 10:56 left in the half before the Conquistadors would cut the deficit to one at 26-25 at the media timeout. The Grizzlies would take their biggest lead of the half at 50-42 with just 1:14 before halftime as Dodge City would trail by six at the break. Free throw shooting and points off turnovers would play the role of the difference maker in the first half with Butler outscoring the Conqs 21-6 off turnovers and DC3 missing six free throws.
Butler and Dodge City would trade buckets to open up the second half with the Grizzlies clinging onto a four point lead for the first six minutes of the half. The Grizzlies would take a seven point lead on a Johntathon Lindsey free throw with 12:32 left before the Conqs would tie things up at 67 halfway through second half. DC3 would be unable to capitalize on the momentum as Butler would re-open a four point lead heading into crunch time. Dodge City would take the lead with 3:11 remaining in the game on a
Brandon Miller layup to go up 81-79 to set up what would be a crazy final three minutes of action. With Butler leading 85-82 with one minute to go, the Conqs would come down and have
Nick Noskowiak hit a corner three to tie things back up at 85. Following a rejected shot by Miller with 43 seconds remaining, Butler would hit a 15-foot buzzer beating jumper to take an 87-85 lead with 24 seconds remaining. The Conqs would get one last shot by
Harris Brown which would be turned back on a block by Linsdsey which would allow the Grizzlies to escape with the two-point home win.
"We couldn't get a stop when we needed it" said head coach
Kyle Campbell in a post-game interview with
Damon Post. "Giving up 52 points in the first half shows just how much we struggled to get a stop, and it put us in a hole for the rest of the game."
Continuing their first half trend, the Conqs would finish just nine of 20 from the charity stripe (45%) and give up 24 points on 16 turnovers. Butler grabbed 34 rebounds to hold a 34-29 advantage over DC3, who would outscore the Grizzlies 38-24 in the paint.
Brown would lead all scorers with 16 points to go along with four defensive rebounds while Noskowiak scored 12 points. Miller had 14 points, five rebounds, and three blocks in 26 minutes off the bench. Butler was led by Lindsey who finished with 16 points.
The Conqs will look to bounce back on Wednesday when they play host to the Cougars of Barton County in a 7:30 p.m. tip-off from the Student Activities Center. Barton lost for the first time this year with an 80-71 home setback to Independence.
