Kansas City Kansas Community College

The Kansas City Kansas Community College women got a rare defensive performance but the injury problems continued to mount for the Blue Devil men in a home court sweep Tuesday night.

Sophomore guard Ashleigh Gallio blocked six shots in the Lady Blue Devils’ 72-48 win over Benedictine’s JV but scoring leader Travis Fairley suffered a sprained ankle in the men’s 91-49 thumping of Ottawa’s JV.

Fairley, who came into the game averaging 16.0 points and 4.8 rebounds, will most likely miss Saturday’s 4 p.m. showdown at highly ranked Penn Valley. The Blue Devils will also be without second leading scorer Chris Combs, who has a back injury.

The Blue Devils continued their torrid shooting in improving to 4-2, hitting a crisp 53.8 percent in building a 42-25 halftime lead and finishing at 56.1 percent including 7 of 13 second half 3-pointers. Freshmen accounted for all but one of the three-pointers as Scott Fruehling was 4 for 7, Derrick Denny 3 for 5 and Jonathon Wright 2 for 3.

Jack Shortell, who was 5-for-5 from the field, led with 16 points while Fruehling added 14, Andre Metoyer 12, Denny 11, Melvin Gatson 9 and Fairley 8. The Blue Devils also got nine assists from Derrick Howard and eight from Gatson while Shortell had six rebounds and Metoyer and Fairley five each as KCKCC controlled the rebounding 37-22.

Only two players have blocked more shots in a game than the six posted by the 5-6 Gallio. Kesia Houston had games of nine and seven blocks while Rasa Sukeviciute had two games of seven. A soph from Millicent, Australia, Gallio also had six steals, six rebounds, five assists and nine points in a standout all-around performance. “Ashleigh has been playing real well for us,” said Coach Valerie Stambersky.

Alexa McGrory scored a game high 23 points and grabbed nine rebounds while Cameron Roland added 12 points and six rebounds and Kristian Dodds 11 points. Defensively, the Lady Blue Devils forced 26 turnovers and limited Benedictine to 30.2 percent shooting.

The win was the third straight for the Lady Blue Devils (3-2), who are entered in the Des Moines Area Community College Classic Friday and Saturday.