DODGE CITY, Kan. – Playing on their home court for the first in nearly a month, the Dodge City Community College men's basketball team shook off the holiday break rust and held on to beat Allen County Community College by a final score of 88-82 in Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference action on Wednesday, January 4.

DC3 is now 10-4 on the season and 7-3 in the KJCCC while the visiting Red Devils slipped to 7-7 overall and 4-6 in the Jayhawk Conference.

Neither team would jump out to a lead larger than 10 in the opening 20 minutes of play as both the Red Devils and Conquistadors would answer nearly every bucket the opponent scored. Leading 8-3 just under three minutes in, Dodge City would see Allen County close to within two at 8-6 before going on a 10-2 run to take an 18-8 lead with 12:39 remaining in the first half. The double-digit lead would be quickly erased however as Allen would tie things at 22 just four minutes later. DC3 would then re-take the lead for the rest of the half, building the amount back up to as much as seven before taking a 36-30 halftime lead into the locker room.

Both teams would score points at will in the second half, with a combined 104 points being totaled in the second half alone. After tying the game at 37, the Red Devils would take the lead at the 18:14 mark in the second half and lead by as many as six at 47-41 with just over 16 minutes remaining in the game. DC3 would fight their way back and re-take the lead on a Nick Noskowiak triple to put them up 53-52 before another Noskowiak three would put Dodge City up 66-62 at the media timeout. With things tied at 66 apiece, the Conquistadors would go on a 12-0 run to take their largest lead of the game and appear to start to pull away before Allen would once again make things interesting. The Red Devils would close to within three at 84-81 with 59 seconds remaining before clutch free throws by Harris Brown and Kourtney Ware would give the Conqs just enough breathing room to come away with the win.

"I thought we played really hard defensively tonight" said head coach Kyle Campbell in a post-game interview. The guys want to get out and play fast, but we have to limit our turnovers." We are taking too many chances right now, but for the first game back from break I like the way our guys played tonight."

Efficient shooting from the field (32-68, 47.1%) played a key role for Dodge City to come away with the victory as well as 44-35 advantage on the glass. DC3 outscored Allen County 40-32 in the paint and had 15 second-chance points compared to seven for the Red Devils.

Noskowiak would finish with a team-high 16 points off the bench while starters Josh Boutte and Brown would each finish with 15 points. Boutte would pull in 14 rebounds to record another double-double while Mike Jones had five assists. Allen County was led by a game-high 28 points from DaRon Mims.

Dodge City will go for their seventh KJCCC win in eight games on Saturday when they travel to Independence to take on the Pirates in a 6 p.m. clash. Independence hosted Seward County tonight, winning 95-82 over the Saints.