DRAGONS CAPTURE 13TH-STRAIGHT REGION VI OPENER

Hutchinson CC Sports Information

The Hutchinson Community College men's basketball team survived an early Allen 3-point barrage to advance to the Region VI Tournament quarterfinals for the 13th consecutive season on Wednesday night.

The Blue Dragons dominated the final 16 minutes of their 2020 Region VI Tournament opener at the Sports Arena, outscoring the Red Devils by 23 points over that span to pull away for a 92-64 victory.

The eighth-seeded Blue Dragons (23-8) will now play the region's top-seeded Cowley Tigers (25-5) in the first men's quarterfinal at 1 p.m. Sunday at United Wireless Arena in Dodge City. Allen ends its season at 16-15.

The Blue Dragons are now 41-8 all-time in first games of the Region VI Tournament (either first or second round) and it's Hutchinson's 199th all-time postseason victory. The last time Hutch lost an opening-round game in the region tournament was 2007.

Leading by eight points at halftime, the Blue Dragon saw Allen score the first five points of the second half to pull within 43-40 with 18:45 to play. With the Dragons lead 47-42 moments later, Saquan Singleton's jumper with 16:11 started a run of seven unanswered points. Jaden Okon hit two free throws with 14:57 left and Hutch led 54-42.

Allen's Malik Hardmon, who scored an opponent-high 39 points against the Blue Dragons in a regular-season 87-80 win over the Dragons on January 4 at the Sports Arena, scored on back-to-back possessions to cut the Dragon lead to 64-54 with 10:33 to play. It was all Blue Dragons after that.

Hutchinson outscored Allen 28-10 in the final 10 minutes. The Blue Dragons shot 58.6 percent in the second half (17 of 29) and limited the Red Devils to 34.4 percent (11 of 32). Hutch outscored Allen 49-29 in the final 20 minutes.

Sophomore Tyler Brown led a balanced offensive attack with his sixth 20-point game of the season, scoring a team-high 21 points with six rebounds, three assists and two steals. Brown had a pair of 3-pointers and was 9 of 10 from the free-throw line.

Freshman Josh Baker nailed 4 of 7 from 3-point range to finished with 18 points and six rebounds. Baker moved past Samajae Haynes-Jones into fourth place on the Hutch single-season 3-point list with 75 treys.

Freshman Clarence King scored 16 points on 7 of 11 shooting off the bench. He collected six rebounds, four assists, two steals and a blocked shot.

Okon just missed a double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds with two blocked shots.

Singleton posted his third double-double of the season with 10 points and a career-high-tying 13 rebounds. Singleton added three assists to move past John Sweet into sixth place on the Dragons' career assist list with 254. Singleton also had three steals.

The Blue Dragons shot 50.7 percent for the game (34 of 67), going 7 of 20 from 3-point range and 17 of 20 from the free-throw line.

The Dragons posted their second-highest rebound total of the season, 59-22. Those 59 rebounds tied for the ninth-most in single-game team history. The 22 rebounds allowed were a season low by the Dragons.

Hardmon led the Red Devils with 23 points and eight rebounds. Trez Hankins hit four early 3-poiners and had six for the game in an 18-point effort.

The Red Devils shot 35.9 percent (23 of 64), going 8 of 29 from distance and 10 of 20 from the line. Allen was 6 of 13 from 3-point range in the first half, but only 2 of 13 in the second half.

There were 11 lead changes and eight ties in the first 15 minutes of the game with neither team leading by more than three points during that stretch.

Tied at 32 with 3:36 to play, the Blue Dragons scored 10 unanswered points over the next 2:19 to lead 42-32 on Matt Mayers' inside bucket with 1:17 left. Despite Allen's sixth 3-pointer of the half, the Dragons led 43-35 at halftime.

Two turnovers on Hutch's first two possessions of the second half turned into five Red Devil points and Allen trailed 43-40 with 18:15 to go. Leading 47-42, a three-point play by King, another king layup and two Okon free throws gave Hutch a 54-42 lead with 14:57 to go.

King hit his only 3-pointer of the game with 12:04 to play to push the Dragon lead to 64-50. Hardmon scored on back-to-back possessions to bring the Devils back to within 10 and the Dragons exploded. Another King layup and a Majok Kuath dunk started a 20-8 Dragon run that saw the lead balloon to 26 points at 84-58 on a Singleton layup.

GAME NOTES – The Blue Dragons are now 44-9 all-time against Allen, 23-8 in Hutchinson and 6-1 in the Region VI Tournament. … Blue Dragon head coach Steve Eck is now 28-8 with Hutch in the Region VI Tournament. … This was all-time win No. 1,828. … The Blue Dragons are now 138-48 all-time in the Region VI Tournament. … This was the 18th time this season Hutch has shot better than 50 percent. … This was the 12th time to hold an opponent to less than 70 points and 20th time to hold an opponent to less than 40 percent shooting. … Clarence King's seven field goals were a career high.