Demons Let Fourth Quarter Lead Slip Away at Wichita North; Season Ends
Wichita, KS (westernkansasnews.com) The Dodge City boys basketball team used separate runs of 9-2 to begin the game, 17-6 in the second quarter and 15-7 win in the third quarter. Wichita North (11-10) used a big 9-0 to pull to within two at the end of the first half on Jonah Carrassco’s slam and 20-9 scoring advantage in the fourth quarter to seal up a two point win and end the Demons season at (3-18) in the first round of substate.
Even though Dodge City proved they belong and almost avenged an earlier 59-48 loss at the Tournament of Champions to the Redskins they just could not close the deal.
Game Highlights First Half/Second Half
Noah Sowers had an opportunity to hit two free throws and forced overtime with both five-tenths of a second left and one-tenth of a second left following a rebound of his own miss and foul by Brigham Shockley, but failed on all four attempts. Two were intentional misses after the first two shots missed on the front part of both trips. Dodge City had other opportunities to pull away and failed to accomplish this.
The Demons started out strong shooting 71 percent in the first quarter at five of seven shooting and nailed two threes in three attempts one from Sowers and the other from Luke Gleason his third three in seven attempts. Despite the hot start the game was tied at 14 apiece at the end of the first eight minutes.
Peyton Hatter dominated Garden City last year in the opening round of substate with 17 points and 14 rebounds. He achieved much the same success in the same round one year later. He finished with 22 points, 4 rebounds (three offensive) and 4 assists.
Thomas Sanchez played strong in his final game for the Demons scoring six of his eight points in the first half. Hunter Heath ended his junior year with 16 for Dodge City after scoring 24 in the first match up with North.
In the fourth quarter the Redskins tuned up the heat with a 3/4 court press and forced the Demons to commit six of their 20 turnovers in the final quarter. All the while North kept chipping away at the 48-39 deficit heading into the final quarter.
Jonah Carassco’s seven footer with a little less than two minutes left gave Wichita North their first lead at 56-55. However off an inbound with 57 seconds left, Luke Gleason came through with a steal at mid-court for Dodge to give them a 57-56 lead. Little did the Demons know that would be the last points of the season for Dodge City.
More heroics for Carassco late as he powered up a shot on the next Redskins possession and was fouled by Heath. The free throw did not go, but North was able to reclaim a 58-57 lead in the final minute.
Brown came up with a steal after a misfired pass to Sanchez with 5.9 seconds left. He nailed one of two free throws bringing the game to two and setting up the dramatic free throws attempts with less than a second to go from Noah Sowers.
Post-game Dodge City Coach Dennis Hamilton
The Dodge City girls (6-14) will have their opening round substate game on Thursday night at six when they take on (8-12) Wichita Northwest a team the Demons beat last year handily in the substate final from Dodge City 54-33.
