DODGE CITY, Kan. - A slow start to open the game put the Dodge City Community College women's basketball team in a hole that they never could recover from in a 70-52 home defeat to Butler Community College at the Student Activities Center in Dodge City on Wednesday, February 8th. 

Dodge City is now 4-20 overall and 4-16 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Confernce while the visiting Grizzlies improved to 18-5 overall and 15-5 in the KJCCC. 

The Conquistadors only lead of the game would come in the opening minute as DC3 would score the opening bucket of the game to take a 2-0 lead. Trailing by a score of 5-4 following a pair of Denis Ortiz free throws with 8:21 left in the first quarter, Dodge City would see a five minute scoring drought allow Butler to go on a 7-0 run to open up a 12-5 lead with 3:22 left in the quarter. Butler would push their lead to double-digits three separate times down the stretch to take a 21-11 lead after one. 

In the second, scoring woes would continue for the Conquistadors as Dodge City would not score their first points of the quarter until the 5:05 mark as Butler would open the quarter on an 11-2 run to open up their largest lead of the half at 31-13. DC3 would trim the Butler lead down to 12 at 34-22 on a Mariah Watkins three with 32 seconds remaining before the half, but the Grizzlies would get a second-chance hoop as time expired to end the half up by a score of 36-22. 

The third quarter would see Butler maintain their lead and match their of 18 points and steadily hold their double-digit lead as Dodge City would be unable to get any closer than 13 points. Despite shooting 41.2 percent in the quarter, Dodge City would see the Grizzlies go 9-20 (45.0%) from the field to stymie any chance at a Conquistador comeback in the third. 

Butler would quickly push the lead to their largest of the game by scoring the first five points of the fourth frame to take a 63-41 lead just 1:31 into the fourth as DC3 would be unable to make any progress towards cutting down the Grizzly lead. An Alexus Johnson fast-break layup would get the Conquistadors within 17 at 65-48 with 4:41 remaining in the game, but DC3 would get no closer as Butler would outscore Dodge City 5-4 in the final minutes of the game. 

DC3 would go just 19 of 58 (32.8%) from the field and shoot 22.7 percent (5-22) from beyond the arc while Butler would not fare much better at 29-84 (34.5%) from the floor and two of 17 (11.8%) from deep. Butler would take full advantage of a 57-41 rebounding advantage which included 29 offensive rebounds that led to 25 second-chance points. 

The Conquistadors were led from a game-high 25 points from Johnson who would also add three assists. Watkins would finish with nine points off of three triples while Ortiz would score seven points and haul in six rebounds. Butler had three starters end up in double-figure points with Kendriana Washington leading the way with 18 points. 

A Saturday road trip awaits Dodge City when the Conquistadors travel to Great Bend to take on Barton County Community College at 5:30 p.m. on February 11th. The Cougars came away with a 59-58 road overtime victory at Independence Community College on Wednesday evening.