DCHS girls pull off upset; boys tumble
MAIZE, Kan. — The Dodge City High School girls basketball team kept their perfect record in tact on Friday night with a 50-47 victory in overtime over Maize, while the Red Demon boys fell 68-39 to drop their third straight game to open the season.
GIRLS: Dodge City 50, Maize 47 (OT)
Junior guard Kisa Unruh went off for a career-high 32 points in the first game of the season against Junction City, but struggled scoring just three the next time out at home against Newton, so a breakout performance was needed on Friday night in Maize and she delivered.
Unruh scored a game-high 26 points, including all seven points in overtime and the final 15 points for the Lady Demons on the way to their first victory over the Eagles since 1999. Kisa sent the game to overtime after Dodge found themselves down 43-41 with eight seconds remaining. Lauren Gleason found Unruh up top out of a sideline out-of-bounds play that saw Unruh go around a screen and right down the right side of the lane for an easy lay-up to tie the game up at 43 apiece with two seconds remaining.
Dodge City even found themselves behind in overtime after Maize’s Sydney Holmes caught fire, but a cool and collected Dodge City wouldn’t be phased. Dodge City’s Camree Johnson caught a pass under the basket on her knees, passed out to Amaya Perez who found Unruh for the three-pointer to give Dodge City the 50-47 lead and then a big rebound on the other end for Chidera Okoro sealed the upset victory on the road.
BOYS: Maize 68, Dodge City 39
The Dodge City boys tried to follow up on what the Lady Demon girls did in the night cap, but a sluggish start would doom the Red Demons. Maize jumped out to a 24-8 lead after the first quarter and had no problems throughout the remainder of the night.
The high flying Eagles soared to new heights, throwing down four dunks in the second quarter alone on their way to a 44-8 lead at the halftime break. Dodge City was held scoreless the entire eight minutes and couldn’t slow down the Eagles on the other end.
Dodge City showed some fight in the third quarter, but again a slow start to the quarter saw the Red Demons not score until three minutes into the quarter and the Red Demons had problems containing the Eagles’ offense, as every time Dodge would score, the Eagles had an answer.
In the end, Maize was just way too much for Dodge City and the Red Demons mistakes were costly, turning the ball over 22 times and shooting just 26% from the field. Cooper Scheck led Dodge City with 13, while Maize was led by K.J. Hampton’s 13 points and six rebounds.
NEXT UP
Dodge City will travel to Hugoton for a non-league doubleheader on Tuesday night. The Dodge City girls (3-0) will tip things off with Hugoton (2-1) at 6:30 p.m. The Sutherlands Home Improvement Center pregame show with Sean Boston will begin at 6:15 p.m. on 98.1 FM-KSKZ, Z98 Mobile App and online at westernkansasnews.com/z98. The boys game will following featuring the 0-3 Red Demons and the 3-0 Eagles.
