Dodge City Boys Beat Rival Garden; Join Girls at State

Dodge City, KS (westernkansasnews.com) The unknown factor coming into Saturday night’s sub-state final between rivals Garden City and Dodge City was how would All-WAC post player Noah Williams be available after suffering a high ankle sprain in a loss eight days prior to Liberal.

Dodge City Head Coach Noah Williams gave it a go, but after playing well after playing well defensively had to leave the game with early foul trouble. His teammates picked him up and outrebounded Garden City by 14 in the second half to win sub-state 55-42 and advance to state for the first time since 2011.

Game Highlights

Garden City played with Dodge quarter by quarter. The problem for Garden was they lost each quarter and gradually fell further and further behind. The Buffaloes (7-15) trailed 14-13 through the first quarter thanks to 2 three point buckets from sophomore guard Garret Doll. Down 23-20 at half Garden City was outscored 32-22 in the third and fourth quarters.

Doll went 5 of 10 for the night from beyond the arc for 19 points. Jared Koster connected on 3 of 11 from long distance for a total of 15 points. Those two combined for 34 of the team’s 42 points on the night.

Dodge City’s (12-10) offense was much more balanced. Caden Walters had 10 along with 8 rebounds, Eric Reid had nine points, Hunter Heath scored a career high nine and Bryce Unruh, Noah Williams and Dayton McGroarty all chipped in 8.

Defensive Dodge City hit 42 percent of their shots while limiting Garden to 28 percent for the game and dominated from the free throw line going 17 of 28 while the Buffaloes went 4 of 4. The Demons Bryce Unruh hit 7 of his 11 free throws and Dodge City too advantage of the transition game to put pressure on Garden’s defense in sealing up their seventh win in the last eight games.

Garden City who came into the game having won back-to-back games lost for the sixth time in their last eight contests to end the season.

For Dodge City they avenged a 40-37 loss to Garden City just three years earlier which gave the Buffaloes their last trip to state. The Red Demons will find out Sunday who they will play Thursday in their 6A state quarterfinal game.

Post-game Comments Dodge Coach Dennis Hamilton