Blue Dragons turn back Thunderbirds, 88-82

HUTCHINSON — Scoring the final six points of the game, the Hutchinson Community College Blue Dragons thwarted a second half comeback attempt by the Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds and posted an 88-82 Jayhawk Conference win Sunday afternoon in the Sports Arena.
Cloud County, looking for the regular season sweep of the Blue Dragons, trailed 57-43 with 14:30 to play in the game.
The T-Birds rallied to tie the game at 80-80 when Cheikh Sow completed a three-point play with 2:17 remaining in the game.
A 12-foot jumper by Steele Gaston-Chapman gave Hutchinson an 82-80 lead with 1:50 to play.
Corey Sawyer scored inside 28 seconds later to knot things up once again at 82-82.
Hutchinson’s Jayden Garrison missed a three-point attempt, but Ra’Sean Frederick came up with an offensive rebound.
Garrison would then knock down a baseline floater to make it an 84-82 game with 34 seconds left.
Following a Cloud County timeout, Joe Kearney was unable to connect on a three-point attempt.
Gaston-Chapman grabbed the defensive rebound and got the ball to Aaron Franklin who scored to put the Blue Dragons up 86-82 with 13 seconds on the clock.
Cloud County turned the ball over and Franklin was fouled.
Two free throws by Franklin made the final score 88-82.
“We came out and we played Cloud basketball in the second half. And in an environment like Hutch all you want is an opportunity under five (minutes), under two with a chance to win. It is a tie game with 1:44 to go and we get a wide open look. And then again we are down two and get another wide open look,” Cloud County coach Devin Kastrup said. “So there is really not much more that we can ask for. I am incredibly proud of our guys' effort in the second half.”
Coming off consecutive wins, the T-Birds fall to 12-8 overall and 8-6 in the Jayhawk Conference.
Hutchinson, which avenged an earlier 90-75 loss to Cloud County, has won six of its last seven games, and is now 14-6 overall and also 8-6 in the conference.
“In tight games, in the final two minutes, you have got to make winning plays and we have done a good job of that this year and have won some close games. And some others have gone the other way,” Kastrup said.
Cloud County got out to an 8-0 lead in the opening 3:30 of the game.
Hutchinson chipped away at the early deficit and went up 19-18 when Cristian Carroll hit a three with 13:07 left in the first half.
The Blue Dragons would not trail again.
It was a 23-21 game when Hutchinson used a 12-2 run to go up 35-23.
Cloud County trailed by as many as 13 points, 40-27, and was down 47-37 at halftime.
“This was the first time since I have been at Cloud where for a span of probably about eight minutes we were playing Hutch basketball, not Cloud basketball,” Kastrup said.
The Blue Dragons extended its lead to 57-43 5:30 into the second half.
Cloud County got to within six points, 57-51.
Hutchinson pushed the lead back to 11 points, 62-51.
Sow finished off a three-point play to cap off a 15-5 spurt by the T-Birds that made it 67-66.
The Blue Dragons were able to fend off the T-Birds until another three-point play by Sow tied the game at 80-80.
Cloud County, after wiping out the 14-point deficit, was unable to wrestle the lead away from Hutchinson.
Sawyer led four Cloud County players in double figures with 26 points. He was six of eight from the field and made 14 of 17 free throws.
The T-Birds outscored the Blue Dragons 23-10 from the free throw line.
Sow hit 8 of 12 shots from the floor and three of four free throws in scoring 19 points.
Kearney finished with 12 points and Malang Athian added 10 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
Cloud County shot a sizzling 59 percent (29 of 49) from the field despite being 1 of 11 from three-point range.
The T-Birds made 23 of 30 free throws for 77 percent.
“If you look at it, we outshot them from the field, we outshot them from the line, our efficiency was actually higher than theirs; however, they had eight more possessions than us due to us having more turnovers and them having 14 offensive rebounds,” Kastrup said.
Franklin scored 19 points for Hutchinson.
Garrison tossed in 18 points and Frederick chipped in 17.
Making 12 of 37 three-point attempts, the Blue Dragons outscored Cloud County 36-3 from behind the arc.
Cloud County, after two games on the road, is back home to host Independence Community College at 8 p.m. Wednesday.