Buster women in win column; men fall short
Audio Highlights: GCCC vs. Eastern Wyoming
Garden City, Kan (westernkansasnews.com)-First-year women’s coach Nick Salazar probably aged 30 years watching his team’s first four games. But he and his team found the fountain of youth on Saturday night.
Shauqunna Collins, who missed the last two games, scored a game-high 22 points and dished out four assists as the Busters held off a scrappy Eastern Wyoming squad 65-59 at the Perryman Athletic Conference.
“It was good to see Shauqunna back out there,” Salazar said. “Our team looks totally different when she plays. She’s our floor general.”
General Custer himself would have been impressed with the way Collins sliced through the Lancer defense. The sophomore got to the rim at will-shooting a game-high 11 free-throw attempts.
“We’ve gotten better every single game-that’s the good news,” Salazar said. “The girls are starting to understand the concepts.”
Allegria Chisholm had her best game this season. The red-shirt sophomore scored nine including an impressive stretch of five straight points.
Garden City (1-4, 0-0) built an eight-point lead midway through the first half, only to see Eastern Wyoming (1-3) cut it to one at the break.
In the second half, the Buster lead swelled to as many as 12, but the Lancers used an 13-1 surge to even up the score.
Courtney Dollison led the way for Eastern Wyoming with 18 points; Jordan Nelson chipped in 10.
Next up: Garden City vs. Tabor JV-Friday, November 15-2 p.m.–pregame 1:45 on westernkansasnews.com
Final Stats: GCCC vs. Eastern Wyoming
Men squander late opportunity
Audio Highlights: GCCC vs. North Platte
Busters Head Coach Brady Trenkle was quite okay with the so-called experts picking his team to finish sixth in the Jayhawk. His main message to everyone: Garden City will be in every ball game. But as the season progresses, Trenkle will expect his team to pull out some of the games most would say they have no chance of winning.
Saturday was one of those-a knock down, drag out, contest that saw No. 25 North Platte pull away late for a 69-62 win.
“This game was about will and some of our guys appeared to just lay down,” Trenkle said afterwards. “It’s disappointing, but we have to move on.”
Garden City, who got 16 points from Jalen Variste, took a five-point lead early in the second half. But the Knights quickly doused the flames, taking the lead for good midway through the final frame.
“They’re a good team,” Trenkle said. “It’s hard, at this level-when you see guys with their heads down to pick them up. But they have to learn the hard way.”
The Buster defense was strong again, holding North Platte star Ethan Montalvo to just 4-for-12 shooting and 14 points. But it was timely shooting and a big-time three by Marco Pascolo in the final few minutes that broke Garden City’s back.
The Lancers (4-0) drilled seven 3-pointers and shot just under 50 percent from the field.
Final Stats: GCCC vs. North Platte
