Alan Hoskins
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
College Advancement
The Blue Devils of Kansas City Kansas Community College proved they can go toe-to-toe with the best of the Jayhawk Conference in the friendly confines of the KCKCC Field House but the road remains a stumbling block.
Within seconds of scoring the year’s biggest upset in a 60-57 loss to No. 5 ranked Cowley County Saturday, the Blue Devils fell 59-46 on the road at Independence Monday. The Lady Blue Devils had no better luck, losing to Cowley 74-31 and Independence 72-47.
Trailing Cowley County 58-57 in far and away their best performance of the season, the Blue Devils had the 35-second shot clock run out on a potential game winning shot with three seconds left.
Led by Derrick Howard, the Blue Devils opened a 19-12 lead in the opening half and were still up at halftime 30-29. A 12-0 Cowley run early in the second half pushed the Tigers in front 45-37 before freshman Scott Fruehling drained three consecutive 3-pointers to cut the deficit to 48-47 and it was nip-and-tuck to finish.
Howard led the Blue Devils with 12 points and five assists while Melvin Gatson added 11 points, Fruehling 9 and Jack Shortell 8 along with a game high eight rebounds. Instrumental in the KCKCC effort was a season-low eight turnovers while forcing 16 Cowley errors.
However, the Blue Devils were guilty of 22 turnovers at Independence Monday. Derrick Denny scored 12 points, all on 3-pointers, for KCKCC while Howard and Shortell added nine each. Shortell also had eight rebounds. The win enabled Indy to move into a first place tie with Coffeyville and Cowley.
Cowley’s women more than lived up to their No. 1 ranked defense, forcing 19 turnovers and holding KCKCC to 17.4 percent shooting in building a 39-13 halftime lead. Shannon Carlin led KCKCC with nine points and five rebounds while Taryn Lane and Cameron Roland were the only other Blue Devils with more than one field goal.
Indy’s women limited KCKCC to four first field goals in opening a 37-13 halftime lead as they tightened their hold on third place (4-2). Roland had 11 points and seven rebounds, Sarah Craft eight points and seven rebounds, Kristian Dodds and Carlin six points each and Ashleigh Gallio six assists for KCKCC (9-9).
Both Blue Devil teams are back home Saturday against Fort Scott at 2 and 4 p.m. and also a week from Saturday against Johnson County.