Domination; Busters steamroll Colby
Men’s Highlights:
Garden City, Kan (westernkansasnews.com)-After Wednesday’s loss at Hutch, men’s coach Brady Trenkle said it almost felt like his team won. Well he didn’t have to worry about that scenario playing out again on Saturday. No moral victories here.
Jade Cathy scored 12 points and Garden City held the vaunted Colby offense to just 33% shooting as the Busters stampeded to an 84-48 win at the Perryman Athletic Complex.
“We came out and guarded really well,” Trenkle said. “I think we set the tone early in the game and guys held on for 40 minutes.”
The funny thing is, most expected this game to be close; it was anything but that.
Scott City product Joey Meyer’s jumper that tied the game at 2-2, would be as close as Colby would get the rest of the way.
The Busters raced out to a 13-6 lead, thanks to a nice setup from Jeremy Wilson to a cutting Jalen Variste. Two John Bell Free throws and a Cathy and one, pushed the lead to 12.
Meantime Colby’s main offensive weapon Jeremiah Ingram-struggled all night long. The sophomore, who came in as the second leading scorer in the Jayhawk West behind Hutch’s Kadeem Allen, was held to just 12 points on 4-of-12 shooting; his second lowest output of the season. In fact, he didn’t reach double figures until midway through the second half.
Despite the blowout, there were plenty of fireworks in this one. One of those came with about three minutes to play in the first half. After Reuben King misfired on a three from the wing, Talan Whitaker skied over two black shirts, grabbed the carom off the right side of the rim, and flushed it down with two hands. The sophomore, who’s already signed with Texas Pan American, raced back on defense to a standing ovation from the DPAC crowd.
A minute later, Wilson’s emphatic rejection of Ingram at the rim, led to a D’Shon Taylor transition layup-giving Garden City (15-4, 1-2) a 40-24 advantage with 25 seconds until the half.
More fireworks were displayed late in the second half. Down by 23 points with with 10:05 remaining, Trojans center Ramon Johnson got into the act, but not the way Colby Coach Rusty Grafel envisioned. Wilson attempted a drive to the basket, but the freshman grabbed him around the neck drawing plenty of oohs from the Buster crowd. It also got King fired to say a couple of choice words in defense of his teammate. The officials gathered together and called a flagrant foul. Johnson was not thrown out, but Grafel sat his young post on the bench for the next eight minutes.
King and Taylor each finished with 11 points. Johnson, Terry Starks and David Tait each finished with seven for Colby (9-10, 0-3).
Next up: Garden City vs. Pratt-Wednesday, January 22-7:30 p.m. on AM 1030 KBUF and westernkansasnews.com.
Final Stats: GCCC vs. Colby
Women’s Highlights:
After two tough losses to begin conference play, the Busters needed a young team like Colby to get their swagger back. They did that and then some.
Loysha Morris tied her career high with 17 points and Sandra Davis notched her fourth double-double of the season as Garden City coasted to a 70-49 win Saturday night at the Dennis Perryman Athletic Complex.
“It wasn’t perfect by any stretch,” Head Coach Nick Salazar said afterwards. But we played much better tonight. I still don’t thing we played great.”
That might be true, but after being down by 40 on a couple of occasions Wednesday night at Hutch, a blowout win over a beleaguered Colby team was exactly what the doctor ordered.
Shaqunna Collins chipped in 14, and Kate Inchun chipped in seven off the bench. Dee Dee Williams scored a season high 16 points for Colby before fouling out in the second half.
