Garden City takes two from Coronado
Garden City, KS-Jackson Dirks had never played in a varsity game before last Friday vs. Guymon. But already, the senior is making his presence felt in Jacy Holloway’s free-flowing, offensive system.
Dirks scored 11 points and pulled down four rebounds, Jarrod Springston finished with 14, and Garden City beat Coronado, CO 60-46 Thursday night at the Garden.
“Jackson gives us size,” Holloway said. “He played really well.”
Dirks provided a spark during the second quarter, when he scored six points-helping the Buffaloes build a 21-15 lead at the break.
That paved the way for a big second half for Garden City’s offense.
After Bryce McKee whipped a gorgeous pass to Brycen Scherr, whose layup cut the Buffalo lead to 43-36 with 5:39 to play, Garden City exploded. Carlos Acosta, who sat on the bench for most of the night in foul trouble, drained a 3, Springston followed with a triple, and the home squad was off and running. Dirks added two free throws, Acosta hit two of his own, and the brown and white punctuated a 15-0 run that put the game out of reach.
“I thought we played really hard tonight,” Holloway said. “We can definitely played better, but I will not fault our effort.”
Garden City outscored Coronado 21-12 in the fourth quarter while limiting the Cougars to 3-of-13 shooting over the final eight minutes.
Azavier Williams added 12 points for the Buffaloes, who improved to 2-0 for the second straight season. Acosta finished with 11 in just 12 minutes.
Scherr paced the Cougars with 14 points on 7-of-12 shooting. But leading scorer Ladarius Mays was held to just 10 on 3-of-14.
Next up: Garden City vs. Palmer Ridge-Friday, Dec. 7-7:30 p.m. on 99.9 FM; westernkansasnews.com/kwkr and KWKR mobile app
Girls
Garden City, KS-Maff Pfeifer expected a jumbled mess going up against a team they’d never seen before. And he got just that.
Julie Calzonetti was the lone Buffalo in double figures with 11 points, Elyssa Salazar added nine, and Garden City stampeded past Coronado, CO 39-22 Thursday night at the Garden.
“That was ugly basketball,” Pfeifer admitted. “It just wasn’t pretty. But that’s what we expected.”
Garden City scored the first 13 points of the game, held the visitors scoreless for the first 10 minutes, and watched as the Cougars bricked their first 12 shots from the floor. The end result: Coronado was held scoreless in the first quarter, the second time they’ve thrown up a donut in a single frame this season.
“Defensively, I thought we got after it,” Pfeifer said. “I just don’t think anything looked really smooth tonight.”
Coronado didn’t get on the scoreboard until Tina Muhammad hit a driving layup two minutes into the second period. But Bryan Earls’ nightmare continued, as he watched Garden City take a 24-4 lead into the locker room.
The only glimmer of hope the road team showed came during a third-quarter in which the Cougars outscored the Buffaloes 9-3. Coronado used a 7-0 spurt to trim the deficit to 13, 26-13 with 1:38 left in the frame. But any excitement was short lived as Keyhana Turner hit 1-of-2 free throws before Salazar buried back-to-back jumpers to begin the final quarter, one of those a 3-pointer from the wing, as Garden City erased any doubt.
Turner finished with six points and nine rebounds for Garden City, who improved to 2-0 for the first time since 2014. Simmons chipped in five, and Beasley had four.
Sarah Ford scored nine points for Coronado, but was just 3-of-10 from the floor.
Next up: Garden City vs. Palmer Ridge-Friday, Dec. 7-5:45 p.m. pregame; 6 p.m. tip on 99.9 FM; westernkansasnews.com/kwkr and KWKR mobile app
