Alan Hoskins
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
College Advancement
Shooting went from one extreme to the other in a matter of three days for Kansas City Kansas Community College’s basketball teams.
The Blue Devil men avenged an earlier 67-58 loss to Neosho by making 14 of 17 free throws including seven of eight in the final 2 ½ minutes in a 66-58 win Wednesday but were only 8 of 19 and were outscored 20-8 from the foul line in a 72-56 loss at Allen County Saturday while the Lady Blue Devils set a KCKCC record by making all 13 of their free throw attempts in a heart-breaking 61-58 loss to Neosho County but managed only 4 of 22 first half shots for 18.2 percent in falling behind 22-15 in a 54-43 loss at Allen County.
The losses left both teams at 3-7 in the Jayhawk with a doubleheader at Cowley County Saturday before returning home Wednesday to host Independence at 5 and 7 p.m.
The Blue Devils had lots of standouts in the win over Neosho as Derrick Denny had 20 points including four three-pointers; Melvin Gatson and Travis Fairley 13 points each; Derrick Howard 10 assists without a turnover and six points; and Jack Shortell, who led the defensive effort with a game high 13 rebounds along with scoring 12 points in a game-changing performance.
Gatson also had 14 points, Denny 13 and Fairley 11 and nine rebounds at Allen County but the Red Devils took advantage of 33.3 percent KCKCC shooting to open a 30-19 halftime lead and then protected it by making 12 of 17 (70.6 percent) shots in the second half.
Led by Cameron Roland’s 7-of-7, the 13-of-13 free throws against Neosho broke KCKCC’s previous bests of 12 of 13 in 1998 and 21 of 23 in 2003. Two of Roland’s free throws produced a 58-58 deadlock with 48 seconds left only to have Neosho’s Kaitlyn Biehl hit a desperation three-pointer with six seconds left for the win.
Roland led all scorers with 22 points in a game in which there were a whopping 13 lead changes and five ties and no team led by more than four points in the final 19 minutes. Kristian Dodds added nine points, Shannon Carlin eight and Ashleigh Gallio eight points and six assists.
Jessie Hilliard came off the bench to lead KCKCC with 11 points at Allen while Roland and Katie Dugan added nine points each. Roland also had 10 rebounds but the Blue Devils could not overcome 62.5 percent Allen shooting in the second half.