DODGE CITY, Kan. - Despite trailing by as many as 24 in the second half, the Dodge City Community College women's basketball team rallied to trail by three in the final moments before falling by a score of 68-63 to Garden City Community College on homecoming at the Student Activities Center in Dodge City on Saturday, January 24th. 

The Conquistadors are now 4-19 overall and 4-15 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference and drop the season series to the Lady Broncbusters who are now 8-15 overall and 6-13 in the KJCCC. 

Things would get off to a slow start for both squads as the opening 2:20 of the game would go by scoreless before Garden City would score the first seven points of the game. DC3 would get on the board on a Taylor Brannen jumper with 6:04 left in the first half, and close within one point of the Lady Broncbusters on three separate occassions in the quarter. Trailing 15-14 with 58 seconds left in the first period, Garden City would open some breathing room with a 5-0 run to end the quarter and go up 20-14 heading into the second. 

With Dakota Hoffman picking up her second foul in the final moments of the first quarter, Dodge City would play the entire second quarter with the freshman on the bench as GCCC would take advantage and quickly build a double-digit lead with 6:46 left in the first half. DC3 would get within eight at 28-20 with 2:21 left in the first half on a Sada Smith bucket in the paint, but Garden City would again close the half strong by scoring the final 10 points and keeping Dodge City off the board to go up 38-20 at intermission. 

Garden City's lead would balloon to it's largest margin at 48-24 with 7:19 left in the third quarter before the Conquistadors would slowly start to chip away and push for defensive stops. nine straight points by DC3 capped off by an Alexus Johnson jumper would put the deficit at 48-33 midway through the third, but GCCC would respond and maintain their lead as Dodge City would shave away just one more point to put the GCCC lead at 14 with a 55-41 lead at the end of the third. 

A quick layup to open the fourth would put Garden City's lead at 16 points before DC3 would again start to slowly fight back and cut into the Lady Buster lead. Unable to get within single digits midway through the fourth, DC3 would finally cut the deficit to eight with 3:50 left in the game at 63-55 but have their momentum killed on an ensuing trey by Garden City. An 8-0 run over a span of 2:10 would give DC3 a slim chance with 22 seconds remaining and trailing by a score of 66-63. GCCC would break the DC3 press and run some clock before being fouled with four seconds left as a pair of Monica Barefield free throws would ice the game much to the dismay of the home crowd. 

"I'm proud of our girls tonight and the standing ovation that our home crowd gave them following the game says it all" said head coach Zach Loll in a post-game interview. "The second-half we got in a bit of an offensive rut and Garden City mixes it up offensively which is ultimately what did us in." 

Dodge City would finish 22 of 73 (30.1%) from the field and hit six treys in the game, four of which would come in the second 20 minutes of action. Each team would get 26 points in the paint as the Conquistadors would hold a 17-6 advantage on second-chance points while out-rebounding Garden City 52-43. 

Johnson would lead the Conqs with 20 points which included a perfect eight of eight performance from the charity strip while falling just short of a double double by hauling in nine rebounds. Smith would score 14 of her 16 points in the second half and add two steals while Taylor Brannen pulled in a team-high 10 rebounds to go along with nine points. Garden City was led by 14 points each from Barefield and DeRae Lewis. 

The first Wednesday home game in over a month awaits Dodge City when they play host to Butler Community College on February 8th at 5:30 p.m. The Grizzlies are hosting Independence Community College on Saturday evening and are 16-5 overall and 13-5 in the KJCCC heading into the contest. Earlier this year, Butler took an 82-57 victory over DC3 in El Dorado.