Demon Girls Roll in Great Bend; Boys Rally Late But Still Lose

Great Bend, KS (westernkansasnews.com) Finally with a healthy lineup the Dodge City girls basketball team completed a perfect week and won back to back games for the first time this season with a 43-37 at Great Bend.  The boys came back from 37-17 down to pull within five only to fall late 45-39.

Girls Highlights First Half/Second Half

Dodge City jumped out to a 19-6 run sparked by the great shooting of senior Tia Bradshaw.  The signee with Hutch Community College scored 11 of her 18 points in the first half and the Demon defense made Great Bend leading scorer Carley Brack work for her 17 points on 4 of 19 shooting to win the game and hand the Panthers their first conference loss. 

In their last matchup January 3rd Great Bend beat Dodge on their home floor 52-37 thanks to a career best 27 from Brack.  Team defense was the key for Dodge holding Great Bend to 25% shooting at 9-36 from the field after they hit 47% of their shots in the first game.

Despite having a double digit lead, Great Bend pulled to within one with a minute and a half left.  The Demons forced a tie up with one minute to go preserving their one point lead, Tia Bradshaw blew a layup but was fouled on her drive to the basket by Shailee Clark.  Bradshaw nailed the two free throws. 

Brack then missed a runner which was rebounded by Bradshaw and Dodge was able to wind down the rest of the clock with 17 seconds and make their free throws to score their second road win of the year and improved their record to 6-12, 2-4 in WAC. 

Great Bend has now lost 6 of 8 and their record falls to 10-8 and 5-1 in WAC. The Demons even though they had problems with the Panthers press at times had 12 turnovers and Great Bend could not take advantage of limiting their turnover mark to eight.  Kaylyn Maple also made difficult in the low post.  Despite a frustrating night offensive, Maple had three block shots in the Demon win.

Coach Kelley Snodgrass Post-game Comments

In the boys game it took a terrific fourth quarter to make an absolute blowout into a barn burner late for the Dodge City boys.

Boys Game Highlights

Playing with a younger group Dodge City hitting eight of their final 15 shots in sparking a 13-0 run to pull to within 37-30.  The Demons had it down to a five point deficit until Koy Brack had a steal and layup with a little less than a minute to go giving Great Bend a 41-34 lead.

Hunter Heath had 14 points and 4 rebounds in the loss.  Kaden Rickenberg had one of his best nights of the year for Dodge finishing with 8. 

Kody Crosby was held one point shy of his career high with 23 for Great Bend on 7-10 shooting, 3 of 4 from 3 and 6 of 8 from the free throw line.

For the second time this year in a Great Bend-Dodge City game the team that had more turnovers won.  The Panthers committed 20 turnovers in the loss, while the Demons had 13.  Dodge led in points off turnovers, but only had a 17-14 edge.

Coach Dennis Hamilton Post-game Comments

Dodge City has their final home game of the season Tuesday against Hays.  Its a Senior Night and the DCHS boys soccer team will get their state championship rings celebrating the school’s first ever state title in the sport.