BLUE DRAGONS LOOK TO REGROUP ON SATURDAY

Hutchinson CC Sports Information

With two games remaining in the 2018 regular season, the Hutchinson Community College Men's Basketball team is back to searching for some momentum.

The No. 11 Blue Dragons start that search on Saturday when the Independence Pirates come to the Sports Arena for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff. Saturday is also Sophomore Night. Just before tipoff, the Blue Dragons will honor their sophomore class.

The game will be broadcast live by Blue Dragon flagship station KHUT-FM (102.9) and on sister stations KWBW-AM/FM (1450/98.5) beginning at 7:20 p.m. with Glen Grunwald (play-by-play) and Rusty Hilst (analysis) calling the action. The game will also be streamed live on the Blue Dragon Sports Network beginning at 7:20 p.m.

Entering last Wednesday's game at Allen, the Blue Dragons had momentum with a six-game winning streak and were in a three-way tie for first place in the Jayhawk Conference. The Red Devils did plenty to derail the Blue Dragon train with a come-from-behind 87-86 upset win in Iola.

After being one of the top 3-point defensive teams in the Jayhawk Conference this season, opponent 3-point prowess has become a source of angst for the Dragons.

On Wednesday, Allen was 17 of 32 from 3-point range. In 4 of Hutch's last 7 games, opponents have hit at least 14 3-pointers in a game, including an opponent-record-tying 19 by Neosho County. Over that seven-game stretch, the Blue Dragons are allowing 36.2 percent from beyond the arc with an average of 11.0 per game. In the preview 21 games, the Dragons were allowing 27.8 percent and 6.4 makes per game.

Now tied for ninth on the Blue Dragon career scoring list, sophomore J.J. Rhymes had 30 points on Wednesday to lead the Blue Dragons, which was shut out from 3-point range by Allen going 0 of 8. Rhymes continues to lead the Jayhawk Conference in scoring at 20.7 points per game.

The Pirates are 7-3 coming in Saturday after a 79-63 home victory over Dodge City on Thursday.

Indy guard DeAnthony McCallum is the Jayhawk Conference's second-leading scorer averaging 17.3 points per game.

In the first meeting of the year between the top two scorers in the league, Rhymes had nine points and McCallum was held to 10 points in a 76-74 Blue Dragon victory on January 10 at the ICC Fieldhouse.

Trailing by four points with 3 minutes, 14 seconds to play, the Blue Dragons closed the game on a 9-3 run to rally and defeat the Pirates. Devonte Bandoo broke out of a shooting slump with 26 points on 5 of 5 3-point shooting and 8 of 12 shooting overall. Romani Hansen had 15 points to lead the Pirates.

As far as the Dragons' positioning in the Jayhawk Conference, the chances of repeating as Jayhawk Conference champions outright are gone. Coffeyville and Barton will play each other on Saturday in Great Bend. There is still a combination of things that could happen for the Dragons to still claim a shared conference championship and the Region VI Tournament's No 1 overall seed.

Hutchinson closes the regular season on Monday at Dodge City.