Dodge City boys end season at No. 1 Campus
HAYSVILLE, Kan. — The Dodge City High School boys basketball team saw their season come to a close on Wednesday night at No. 1 Campus in the opening round of the Class 6A West Sub-State, falling 73-44.
Dodge City came into the game as the No. 16 seed with a 4-16 regular season mark, while Campus was unbeaten at 20-0, their first unbeaten regular season in program history. The Red Demons had nothing to lose, going into the game as a huge underdog.
The Red Demons came out loose and scored the first basket of the game, the teams would go back and forth the first couple of possessions before a 7-0 Colt run put Campus up early on. Dodge City weathered that storm however and went into the second quarter trailing 23-13 after the Colts were able to get some breathing room late in the quarter. The second quarter was more of the same, as the teams went back and forth and again a 10 point lead at the halftime break, 33-23.
Campus came out in the second half and put on a full-court press which would be too much for the Red Demons to handle. The young Dodge City team turned the ball over 23 times in the contest, resulting in 26 Campus points. Campus outscored Dodge 23-13 in the third quarter to go into the final period up 56-36. The intensity from the No. 1 ranked team picked up in the final quarter as they’d grow the lead to 30 and eventually would pull out a 29-point win.
Dodge City coach Tony Starnes was pleased with the effort from his guys throughout the entire 32 minutes. The Red Demons end their season at 4-17 overall, the fewest wins since the 2016-17 season when that team finished 3-18.
Sophomore Dylan Smith finished with 13 points to lead the Red Demons, while John Johnson recorded another double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds on the night in his final game in a Dodge City uniform. Josh Harshberger also playing in his final game scored two points with three rebounds.
Campus will host Derby on Saturday evening at 6:00 p.m. in the sub-state championship game.
