DODGE CITY, Kan. - Heading into a crucial three-game stretch over the next week, the Dodge City Community College men's basketball team cleared the first obstacle by hanging on to beat Garden City Community College by a score of 73-68 at the Student Activities Center in Dodge City on Saturday, February 4th.
The win keeps Dodge City in third place in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference by improving to 16-7 and 13-6 in the KJCCC just one game behind Barton Community College for second-place. GCCC falls to 15-8 with the loss and 11-8 in the Jayhawk Conference.
Both teams would come out shooting in the opening minutes as the Broncbusters would quickly open a 7-2 lead before seeing a 9-0 Dodge City run give the Conquistadors an 11-7 lead with 15:52 left in the first half. DC3 would push their lead to 17-11 two minutes later on a
Harris Brown triple and maintain their lead for the next six minutes. A Ben Howze layup would tie the game for Garden City at the 7:09 mark of the first half before Howze would hit the bonus free throw on the foul to allow GCCC to regain the lead at 26-25. The lead would be short-lived for Garden City as
Josh Boutte would dunk it home on a fast-break as part of a 7-0 DC3 run to go up 33-28 with 3:52 remaining until halftime. With the lead at five with 2:13 left in the first half, Garden City would use a dunk and three free throws down the stretch to tie things at 35 all heading into halftime in what would be a sign of things to come.
The two teams would go back and forth in the opening four minutes of the second half as Garden City and Dodge City would each take lead in the opening minute. Garden City would answer every single DC3 lead to tie the game on three separate occasions before taking the lead with 16:23 left in the game. The Broncbusters would maintain their lead for the next 4:20 before a
Mike Jones free throw would tie the game at 49 for Dodge City. After trading leads five times over the next five minutes before the Conquistadors would take the lead at the 6:47 mark in the second half on a
Trevon Evans jumper that would be part of six straight points for DC3. Garden City would once again fight back to re-gain the lead on a James Naradain triple with 2:19 left in the game but Dodge City would come right back as local freshman
Dayton McGroarty would hit a layup and the ensuing free-throw following a foul to put DC3 up 68-66 with 1:51 left in the game. GCCC would answer to tie the game at 68 before an Evans three would put the Conqs up for good with 1:15 remaining in the game. The Conquistador defense would step up to force Broncbuster turnovers on consecutive possessions before Brown would all but end the game with a pair of free throws with three seconds left.
"We knew that these guys are the best rebounding team in the league, so we sat in a 2-3 zone and stayed patient tonight" said head coach
Kyle Campbell in a post-game interview with
Damon Post. "
Aaron Williams and
Matt Lebegue came in and gave us great minutes tonight, and did a great job for guys who haven't seen a lot of playing time up to this point." "It was a great crowd tonight and great atmosphere and the fans got treated to a great college basketball game."
Dodge City would finish 40.6 percent (28-69) from the field and hit six of their eight threes in the first before finishing eight of 24 in the game (33.3%). The Conquistadors won the rebounding battle 38-34 and made the most of 13 Garden City turnovers by scoring 18 points.
Brown led three Conquistador players with a game-high 27 points and three assists while Evans had 15 points and two steals. Boutte continued his recent streak by scoring 14 points and hauling in 14 rebound to record his sixth straight double-double. James led the Broncbusters with 18 points and 10 rebounds.
Butler Community College is the next obstacle in store for Dodge City on Wednesday, February 8th at 7:30 p.m. in Dodge City. The Grizzlies downed DC3 87-85 on December 3rd earlier this season by hitting a go-ahead jumper with 24 seconds left and then forcing a rushed Conquistador shot at the buzzer. Butler is a game back of Dodge City in the KJCCC standings heading into a home contest against Independence Community College on Saturday night.
