By John Mesh
The Hutchinson Blue Dragon men’s basketball team trailed at halftime 40-26, but rallied to beat the Cloud County Thunderbirds 77-73 Saturday at the Arley Bryant Gym in Concordia.
Hutchinson trailed by as many as 16 points early in the second half.
“Give Cloud County a lot of credit,” said HutchCC men’s basketball coach Kyle Fisher during his radio postgame interview. “They played physically. We were cold (in the first half) and took bad shots.
“It was a gut check at halftime. I was proud of the guys for coming back in the second half. Our Achilles’ heel this season has been our defense. We’ve got to be better (defensively) when we have the lead.”
The Blue Dragons cut the Thunderbirds’ lead to 45-43 with a 17-5 run to start the second half. Then HutchCC tied the score at 55-55 with 9:10 left in the game and 60-60 with 7:24 left.
The Blue Dragons took their first lead of the game with about 4 minutes left in the game and increased it to 69-62. Cloud cut the HutchCC lead to 69-66 with 3:10 left win the game.
Hutchinson’s Mikhail Abdul-Hamid drained a 3-pointer with 1:54 l4ft in the game to give the Blue Dragons a 72-68 lead.
Hutchinson’s Jaquez Thornton then added two free throws for a 74-68 lead with 1:23 left. Thornton made 1-of-2 foul shots at the 31-second mark to make the score 75-71.
Cloud County’s Keyon Garret-Miller made a 3-pointer on an assist by Matthew Garber to cut HutchCC’s lead to 75-71 with 20 seconds left.
HutchCC’s Kahlil Arnold made 1-of-2 free throws to make the score 76-71 with 17 seconds left. Cloud County’s Garret-Miller hit a jump shot with 10 seconds left to cut HutchCC’s lead to 76-73.
HutchCC’s Thornton made 1-of-2 foul shots with 3 seconds left for the final 77-73 margin.
Thornton led the Blue Dragons with a career-high 27 points. Arnold scored 18 points. Isaiah Jackson had a “double-double” with 10 points and 13 rebounds. DJ Dudley scored 8 points and Abdul-Hamid 7.
Bobby Cannon contributed 4 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 4 blocked shots. Bo Aldridge hit a 3-pointer for his 3 points.
Dudley and Thornton each had 3 assists. Jackson added 2 blocked shots.
Garret-Miller led the Thunderbirds with 20 points and had 4 assists. Elidjah Savane had a “double-double” with 18 points and 10 rebounds and blocked 2 shots.
Garber had 14 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Kuel Akot had 9 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists.
The Hutchinson Blue Dragons improved to 8-5 overall and 4-3 in KJCCC play. The Cloud County Thunderbirds dropped to 9-6 overall and 3-5 in the KJCCC.
Hutchinson has won two straight games. The Thunderbirds have lost four straight games.
Saturday’s game was the 80th all-time meeting between Hutchinson and Cloud County. The Blue Dragons own a 59-21 series advantage (18-17 in Arley Bryant Gym).
Since Cloud County joined the Jayhawk Conference before the 1995-96 season, the Blue Dragons lead the Thunderbirds 41-17.
The Blue Dragon men wrapped up the first-semester portion of the 2024-2025 season. HutchCC will have 24 days off for the holiday break.
The Hutchinson men will be back in action against Cowley College Jan. 4 at the Hutchinson Sports Arena.
No. 1 Blue Dragon women notch 50th straight victory
The No. 1-ranked Hutchinson Blue Dragon women’s basketball team has won 50 consecutive games.
The Blue Dragon women reached the milestone by routing the Cloud County Thunderbirds 77-53 Saturday afternoon at Arley Bryant Gym in Concordia.
The 50-win mark for the HutchCC women’s team includes last year’s 37-0 run to the NJCAA Division I women’s national championship plus the 13 wins in the first half of the 2024-2025 season.
The Hutchinson Blue Dragon women improved to 13-0 overall and 7-0 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference.
Cloud County dropped to 10-3 overall and 5-3 in the KJCCC.
The Blue Dragon women led 23-12 at the end of the first quarter, 39-21 at halftime and 56-35 after three quarters. Hutchinson won the fourth quarter 21-18.
Hutchinson was paced by sophomore All-American candidate Hailey Jackson, who posted a “double-double” with 23 points and 10 assists.
Dylan Alexander poured in 18 points and Jada Pleasant added 11. Madi Denison contributed 6, Honey Coney 5, Brynne Katcher 5, Jaden Wilson 4, Katie Duncan 3 and Kahlen Norris 2.
Landon Forbes, Noelle Anthon and Zhane Singer played but did not score. Forbes had 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals. Denison and Norris each had 5 rebounds. Pleasant had 4 assists.
Talasia Thomas led the Thunderbirds with 16 points. Bre Frazier added 14 points and Shea Wurtz 10. Tiana Davis scored 7 points. Wurtz grabbed 6 rebounds.
Saturday’s game featured the top two winningest coaches in Jayhawk Conference women’s basketball history.
Hutchinson head coach John Ontjes is second in the KJCCC with 496 wins. He now has won 150 true road games and is 29-6 against Cloud County.
Only Cloud County head coach Brett Erkenbrack has more KJCCC and Region 6 wins. Erkenbrack has 681 Jayhawk Conference victories and 759 Region 6 wins.
The Blue Dragon women wrapped up the first semester portion of the 2024-2025 season. HutchCC will have 24 days off for the holiday break.
The Hutchinson women will be back in action against Cowley College Jan. 4 at the Hutchinson Sports Arena.