Hugoton Eagles Grab Two Games in Dodge City
Dodge City, KS (westernkansasnews.com) It was a truly historic night at the Dodge City High School Fieldhouse and one both teams hope pay dividends as they begin their conference seasons in a couple of weeks.
In their first matchup ever in girls basketball Hugoton pulled out a comfortable 71-47 win over Dodge, while the boys played for the first time since 1942 and the Demons clawed their way back from a double digit deficit only to fall late to Hugoton 62-55.
Girls Highlights
Hugoton’s girls presented a tough test for the Demons. The top ranked team in 3A, three straight trips to state and a state championship in 2015 the Eagles had a 25 point first quarter. Sparked by a pair of thousand point scorers Hugoton had control most of the game throughout.
Katy Heger a signee with Washburn University next year had 26 points on 11-17 shooting and her teammate Amy Scott a future Seward County Saint added 17 on 7-11 performance from the field.
The bright spot for Dodge City came from their senior guard Tia Bradshaw. Coming into the game hitting just 2 of her first 17 shots, Bradshaw scored 24 on 9-19 shooting and added seven rebounds. By scoring 24, Bradshaw eclipsed the 500 point mark in her career and now has 508 coming into her next game with Goddard Eisenhower.
The Demons struggled from outside all night long going 3-18, but the bright spot is Hugoton did not exactly light it up either hitting 3-11 from outside the arc. However, the Eagles used turnovers to their advantage. Using their press, Hugoton capitalized on 20 first half takeaways and 27 for the game in shooting an impressive 51 percent from inside the three point line to push their record to 4-0. With the loss Dodge City falls to 1-2.
Dodge City still without the services of injured Kaylyn Mapel had four block shots from Ashley Nelson who came within one point and one rebound of her first double-double (nine points and nine rebounds). Among other things that went well for the Demons they had 15 offensive rebounds in the loss.
DCHS Coach Kelley Snodgrass Post-game
Over to the boys game where it was a bit of a grudge match and the Demon offense started to click thanks to the outside shooting of senior guard Chris Baker.
Boys Highlights
Baker had three treys in the first several minutes of the game as Dodge City opened up a 12-8 lead. For the game, Baker went 5 of 10 from long distance and scored a season high 17. As a team Dodge City hit 54% of their shots when they were held below 30% over their first two games of the season.
Hugoton did just enough to win the game. Led by Colby Korf’s four of nine shooting from outside and Zach Leininger’s 13 points, seven rebound night the Eagles had a comfortable lead from midway through the second quarter on.
It was also hard for Dodge to play at the rim because Hugoton senior Tony Kinser utilized his 6-9 frame blocking four shots and was able to get fouled going to the line 12 times and hitting seven free throws. He also added a big stick back with a minute and a half left off a missed layup from Korf to build the lead back to seven.
Besides Baker, Dodge had two other players in double figures. Sophomore Noah Sowers had 13 points and 5 rebounds marking the second time he reached double figures in scoring this year. Hunter Heath returned after sitting out the first two games to pour in eleven off the bench.
Hugoton was able to get their first ever win over Dodge in just the third ever contest between the two teams. With the win the Eagles improved to 4-0. Dodge City gained confidence by holding in there against Hugoton (3rd ranked in 3A) even despite losing their third straight game to start the season.
Post-game from DCHS Coach Dennis Hamilton
This weekend Dodge City goes to Goddard Eisenhower Friday night and then returns home to play Manhattan on Saturday. Pre-game coverage Friday night begins at 5:45 on Z98 and westernkansasnews.com.
