Conquistador women win big, men lose nail-biter against Butler

The Dodge City Community College basketball teams were back in action on Saturday against the Butler Grizzlies for another Saturday home game. The women’s team moved to 4-0 in KJCCC play with their win over Butler, but the men came up short and dropped to 1-3.

The women’s game did not start out well for the Conquistadors, as they gave up a 16-0 run in the first quarter and found themselves down 18-7. The lead got up to as many as 13 for the Grizzlies in the first quarter.

The second quarter is when Dodge City started to climb back into the game, tying it up at 35 before a buzzer-beater put Butler up 37-35 at halftime.

In the second half, it was all Conquistadors, as they led by as many as 23 on their way to the 85-70 win.

Shorna Preston, the reigning NJCAA Player of the Week was an assist shy of a triple double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Layla-J Cameron was the game’s leading scorer with 23 points as No. 6 Dodge City won the top 25 matchup with No. 23 Butler.

In the men’s game, Butler came in as the No. 11 ranked team in the country, and Dodge City was coming off of a 39-point loss to Cowley. The Conquistadors displayed some tenacity as their sole focus was on the Grizzlies.

It was a low scoring battle that went into halftime with the score 27-25 in favor of the guests. Butler, normally a high-scoring team averaging over 80 points per game coming into Saturday, was held in check offensively.

The Grizzlies got out to a nine-point lead with 14 minutes left, but the Conquistadors kept battling back, finding themselves tied at 62 with two minutes to play. A tough shot inside and two free throws put Butler up with 13 seconds to play, but Dodge City’s Kyle Burns got to the free throw line and made one of two with three seconds left.

Butler, without any timeouts and a five second violation looming, made an errant pass in bounds that was eventually controlled by Keshawn Brown Jr of Dodge City, who got a decent look from well beyond the three-point line. The shot rimmed out, and the Conquistadors came up short 66-63.

Freshman forward Douda Cisse played the best game of his young career with a 15-point 5 rebound performance. Jayse Boatwright added 18 points to the effort as well.

Both Dodge City basketball teams will now turn their focus toward a road trip out to Pratt on Wednesday night, with tipoff for the women’s game at 5:30.