COFFEYVILE, Kan. - Playing on the road at the place that current Dodge City Community College head men's basketball coach Kyle Campbell spent his six years directly before Dodge City, the Conquistadors were able to battle through by using a 10-man rotation to beat Coffeyville Community College by a final score of 78-73 at Nellis Hall in Coffeyville on Wednesday, Jan. 25. 

DC3 improved to 14-6 overall and 11-5 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference and ensured that the Red Ravens would not hold the tiebreaker over the Conqs at the end of the season. CCC fell to 12-8 overall and 8-8 in the KJCCC. 

The opening minutes of the game would see sophomore Josh Boutte single-handedly keep the Conquistadors in the game, grabbing three rebounds in the first 45 seconds of the game and scoring eight points to go along with eight boards despite playing only eight minutes in the half. After the Red Ravens would score a three to open the game, DC3 would score the next seven points and lead until back-to-back treys by Coffeyville would give CCC a 16-14 lead with 9:24 left in the first half. The Red Ravens would go on to score another six points to cap off a 12-0 run and take a 22-14 lead with 8:09 left in the first period. Brandon Miller and Dayton McGroarty would provide a spark off the bench to score the next nine DC3 points before Trey Grundy would give the Conqs the lead on a monster fast-break dunk to put DC3 up 27-25 with 3:38 left in the half. A 5-0 run by CCC would put Coffeyville up 31-27 before Dodge City would hold the Red Ravens scoreless the final 2:01 of the half while scoring the final seven points to go up 34-31 at intermission. 

Kourtney Ware find his stroke to start the second half and hit two threes on his way to scoring 16 of his 18 points in the second half. Coffeyville would battle back to re-take the lead at 42-40 with 16:59 left in the game before a 13-1 DC3 run would put the Conqs up 53-43 with 13:12 left in the game. The pesky Red Ravens would regain the lead on their home court with 6:58 left in the game, but the Conqs would respond to quickly tie things up. Holding onto a 67-66 lead with 2:58 left, Nick Noskowiak would hit four consecutive free-throws to give Dodge City some breathing room. Coffeyville would score five points on their next two possesions with a Boutte rebound and put-back sandwiched in between to allow DC3 to maintain their lead before Ware and Noskowiak would combine to hit four free throws following a Flagrant 1 foul and foul by Coffeyville on the ensuing possesion. The Red Ravens would hit two free throws before Ware would make one of two to allow the Conqs to come away with the five point victory. 

"This place is extremely hard to win at and the one thing I told our guys when we got here was that we needed to be physical on the glass" said Campbell in a post-game interview. "I thought some guys stepped up tonight who haven't been playing their best lately, and it really made a difference tonight." "They hit four threes in the first half and three of them were off offensive rebounds, which leads us to some things we need to work on but the guys stayed together and never quit tonight."

As a team, Dodge City finished 28-64 from the floor (43.8%) and hit 16 of 23 free throws which included a 10-15 effort in the second half. Coffeyville would shoot 40.3 percent (27-67) from the field, but would get out-rebounded 45-33 and give up 18 offensive rebounds to the Conquistadors which led to 21 second-chance points. 

Ware's game-high 18 points would be one of three Conqs in double-figures as Boutte would finish with 16 points and 12 rebounds while overcame a 2-10 effort from the floor to finish with 14 points by making all eight free throws. Grundy would just miss out on a double-double, finishing with nine points and 10 rebounds. 

KJCC play continues for DC3 when they host Neosho County on Saturday, January 28th at 3 p.m. The Conquistadors beat the Panthers 89-72 heading into Thanksgiving break earlier this year in Chanute. That game saw Dodge City hit a season-high 13 three's in the win. Neosho County is 7-13 overall and 4-12 in the Jayhawk Conference after a 71-64 home win over Independence on Wednesday evening.