Alan Hoskins
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
College Advancement
Just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong for Kansas City Kansas Community College basketball teams in the season-opening Keith Lindsey Classic Friday and Saturday.
Frigid shooting, costly turnovers and failure to hold on to leads left Blue Devil teams with their first ever 0-4 start in the annual two-day kickoff event. Beaten 63-39 by Brown Mackie on Friday, the Lady Blue Devils couldn’t stave off a late Hesston finish in a devastating 50-48 loss Saturday while the Blue Devil men fell 65-59 to North Arkansas on Friday and 93-78 to Living The Dream on Saturday.
Both KCKCC teams will try to get into the win column Thursday when the women host Mid-America Nazarene’s JV at 6 p.m. and the men entertain William Jewell’s JV at 8 p.m.
A collection of former college standouts, Living The Dream had five players in double figures led by former Oral Roberts point guard Luke Spencer-Gardner. KCKCC countered with 23 points from Chris Combs, 16 from Melvin Gatson, 14 from Travis Fairley and 13 from Derrick Denny and 10 rebounds from Jack Shortell but it wasn’t good enough to overcome chilly second half shooting and 10 turnovers. Trailing 42-41 at the break, Living The Dream shot 48.7 percent the second half to .361 for the Blue Devils. Still, KCKCC trailed just 72-68 with 4:01 left only to have ex-Washburn standout Eric Carter bury a pair of three-pointers in a 21-10 finish.
The Blue Devils could not overcome North Ark’s 55 percent first half shooting in the opener Friday. Led by Dustin Todd’s 16 points, the Pioneers built a 35-26 halftime lead and turned back every KCKCC comeback bid. Combs and Fairley had 14 points each, Derrick Howard 9 and Shortell 8 for the Blue Devils, who sabotaged their own hopes by making just 10 of 24 free throws and committing 31 fouls.
The Blue Devil women suffered the most crushing of blows when Hesston came from nine points back to outscore KCKCC 11-0 in the final 3 ½ minutes for a 50-48 win. Aided by three turnovers and six fouls, Hesston pulled even 48-48 with 18 seconds left and then won it when Jessica Coffman stole the ball with seven seconds left and made one of two free throws. Alexa McGrory had 17 points and Cameron Roland 11 for KCKCC, which had 25 turnovers and just 34 percent shooting.
Brown Mackie took advantage of 20.6 percent KCKCC to build up a 24-17 first half lead en route to a 63-39 win in Friday’s opener. McGrory had 12 points and 13 rebounds and Roland 10 points for the Lady Blue Devils, who were just 16 of 62 for 25.8 percent for the game.
In other games, Penn Valley’s men won a pair of thrillers, beating Leaving The Dream 112-102 in overtime and North Arkansas 77-75 on Marquis Kilgore’s basket with six-tenths of a second remaining. Brown Mackey’s women also finished 2-0, beating Penn Valley 71-55 while Penn Valley defeated Hesston’s women 69-44.