DODGE CITY, Kan. - With the regular season winding down shortly, the Dodge City Community College women's basketball team fell in an early hole and could never recover in a 98-45 home loss to Independence Community College at the Student Activities Center in Dodge City on Wednesday, February 22nd.
With the loss, DC3 is now 4-24 overall and 4-20 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference while the Lady Pirates improved to 12-16 overall and 9-15 in the KJCCC.
ICC would score the first 14 points of the game while taking advantage of second chance points and costly Dodge City turnovers before
Denis Ortiz would hit a trey to put the Conquistadors on the board. DC3 would fight their way back with a
Sada Smith trey and
Alexus Johnson free throw to cut the lead to 17-7 with 2:38 remaining in the first quarter, but would see Indpendence end the quarter by doubling up the Conqs 10-5 to take a 27-12 lead into the second quarter. Dodge City would fall on tough times in the second, hitting just three of their 13 shots from the field in the second frame, as the Conquistadors would not get closer than 12 points following a
Mariah Watkins three to open the quarter. An ICC 8-0 run to end the half would see DC3 face their largest deficit of the half with the Lady Pirates taking a 45-19 lead into intermission.
Continuing where they left off, Independence would start the second half on a 10-0 run before Johnson would end the streak with a jumper with 6:48 left in the third. Things would not get much better for the Conquistadors, as ICC would outscore the Conquistadors 23-11 in the third to take a 68-30 lead into the fourth. DC3 would see their largest scoring output of the game occur in the fourth by putting up 15 points in the final 10 minutes, but see Independence double up the Conqs to end the game.
Dodge City would shoot just 16 of 61 (26.2%) from the floor while finishing five of 18 (27.8%) from beyond the arc and eight of 18 (44.4%) from the free-throw line. Independence would go nearly 50 percent from the floor, finishing with a 47.5 percent field goal percentage (38-80) and hitting 16 of 21 (76.2%) from the charity stripe. The Lady Pirates would take advantage of 13 Conquistador turnovers, resulting in 17 points while also scoring 19 points off of 22 offensive rebounds. ICC would out-rebound Dodge City 62-30.
Smith would lead DC3 with 13 points while Ortiz scored nine and dished out three assists.
Taylor Brannen and Watkins would each net five for the Conquistadors while Johnson finished with six points. Independence was led by a game-high 20 points from Alek Akuen.
Sophomore day will be on Saturday for DC3 when the Conquistadors play Seward County Community College at 1 p.m. at the Student Activities Center. The Lady Saints were 92-58 winners at Colby Community College on Wednesday night.
