Alan Hoskins
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
College Advancement
Kansas City Kansas Community College coaches Valerie Stambersky and Jon Oler may be best served by walking down the hall and borrowing a closer from Steve Burleson’s baseball team.
Stambersky’s Lady Blue Devils staged what is believed to be the biggest comeback in KCKCC history only to drop a 57-53 decision to league-leading Labette on Wednesday while Oler’s men’s team wiped out a 9-point second half deficit only to lose in overtime 54-52 to Fort Scott Saturday. The men’s loss came after a 77-63 win over Labette while the Blue Devil women dropped their fourth in a row 68-55 to Fort Scott Saturday.
Both teams are back home against arch-rival Johnson County Saturday (2 and 4 p.m.) and again Wednesday against Neosho County before playing five of their final seven on the road.
Melvin Gatson and Derrick Denny combined for eight three-pointers and 43 points in KCKCC’s 77-63 win over Labette. Gatson had 22 points and three treys and Denny was 5-for-6 from three-point in adding a career high 21 points. Derrick Howard chipped in with 10 points, four assists and seven rebounds and Jonathon Wright grabbed a career high 12 rebounds for the Blue Devils, who led by as many as 20 in the second half.
However, the Blue Devils were just 3-of-21 for 14.3 percent from three-point in the overtime loss to Fort Scott. Trailing 31-22 midway through the second half, the Blue Devils went ahead three times in the closing minutes, once on a Gatson layup and twice on Denny field goals, the second on a 3-pointer with 54 seconds left. Howard boosted the KCKCC lead to 46-44 but missed a second free throw and Fort Scott pulled even on a layup by Bryce Kemp, who then forced overtime with a last second steal.
KCKCC never led in the overtime although Gatson tied it twice on free throws and then got the Blue Devils back to 54-52 only to be stripped of the ball on a game-tying attempt at the end of the overtime. Gatson led all scorers with 20 points and Howard added 10 and Travis Fairley 8 and 7 rebounds.
The KCKCC women trailed Labette 35-20 late in the first half only to outscore the Cardinals 26-6 to start the second half and take a 46-41 lead with 8:00 remaining. However, the Blue Devils were able to manage only one field goal the rest of the way, a 3-pointer by Kelsey Stanbrough in the final seconds as they were just one of 10 with four turnovers down the stretch. Ashleigh Gallio led KCKCC with 11 points and eight assists while Sarah Craft had nine points and a career high 12 rebounds, Shannon Carlin 8 points and 8 rebounds and Kristian Dodds 7 points.
Cameron Roland had 21 points and Carlin a career high 19 points and seven rebounds but it wasn’t enough against Fort Scott’s duo of Leondra Doomes-Stephens, the conference’s leading scorer who had 32 points, and Valencia Kelly, who contributed 22. Craft had 10 rebounds and Ashleigh Gallio eight assists for KCKCC but both were limited to 23 minutes because of early fouls.