Demon Girls Win First Game, Boys Fall to 0-2
Liberal, KS (westernkansasnews.com) A neutral court and unfamiliar opponent greeted the Dodge City High School basketball teams on Friday when they took on Hereford, TX. The Herders had a pair of teams hovering around the .500 mark for the year.
The Dodge City girls used the strength of a 20 point fourth quarter to finish off Hereford 59-34. The guys were tied at 30 until a critical three was scored by Sergio Cruz from the right corner with 2 minutes to play in the Demons 36-31 loss.
Girls Highlights
Sophomore Madison Armstrong started out strong scoring 8 of the team’s first 10 points and hitting a pair of threes to finish the afternoon scoring 15. Ashley Nelson also played well building on her 18 point, nine rebound opener by scoring 14 points and adding 7 rebounds in the win.
One other category where the Demons excelled was off the boards. Out rebounded by ten in their first game at Junction City, Dodge came back to beat Hereford off the glass 36-29. Tia Bradshaw despite getting off to a slow start scoring still pulled in six rebounds and had four assists in the game.
Dodge City hit a whopping 49 percent of their shots at 19-39 and went to the line 24 times hitting 16 free throws and limited the Lady Herders to 25 percent from the field at 13/51 and 2-20 from the beyond the arc in attempting only nine free throws (6-9ft).
Andrea Valenzuela came close to a double-double for Hereford with nine points and eight rebounds.
Post-game from DCHS Coach Kelley Snodgrass
In the boys game, Dodge City defense kept them in the game despite hitting less than 30 percent of their shots for the second straight game. The Demons out rebounded the Hostile Herd 30-21, but would only come up with two second chance points during the game.
Boys Highlights
Chris Baker and Thomas Sanchez shared the team lead in scoring for Dodge City with 9 points. Baker was 3-16 from the field and 3-10 in shooting 3s, Sanchez went 3-4 in field goal attempts and 3-6 from the free throw line.
The Demons rattled off a 6-3 run at the end of the second quarter and outscored Hereford 9-4 during the third quarter. With less than four minutes to play sophomore Noah Sowers 2 free throws made it 27-25.
The Hostile Herd closed out the remainder of the game on an 11-4 run thanks to Cruz big three with two minutes to go in giving Hereford the lead 33-30 and an airball three from Chris Baker in trying to answer back for Dodge.
Cruz had 14 points and two rebounds for Hereford, Parker Lowery finished 4-10 from the field in scoring 15 points and grabbing nine boards.
Post-game comments from DCHS Coach Dennis Hamilton
Dodge City will play their first home game Tuesday when Hugoton comes to town. The Lady Eagles have been to state three years in a row and won the state championship two years ago. The boys finished up runners up in 4A-II last year in Emporia to Wichita Collegiate. Pre-game show will begin at 5:45 on Z98 and westernkansasnews.com.
