DRAGONS DOMINATE IN PAINT TO DEFEAT RAVENS

Jada Mickens had 20 rebounds to lead a dominant performance in the paint by the Blue Dragons in a 63-53 victory over Coffeyville on Tuesday at the Sports Arena. (Allie Schweizer/Blue Dragon Sports Information)

November 21, 2017

Hutchinson CC Sports Information

Led by freshman Jada Mickens, the No. 12 Hutchinson Community College women's basketball team dominated Coffeyville in the paint Tuesday night and reached the .500 mark in conference play.

Mickens became the third Blue Dragon in program history with a 20-rebound game and the Blue Dragons defeated the Red Ravens 63-53 at the Sports Arena.

Hutchinson improves to 4-2 overall and evens its record at 2-2 in the Jayhawk Conference. Hutchinson is back on the road Saturday at Neosho County. Coffeyville falls to 4-4 and 2-1 in the conference.

Mickens grabbed 20 rebounds to lead the Blue Dragons to a 55-30 rebounding advantage. Mickens joins Kalani Purcell (22 rebounds in 2015) and Ariella McGhee (20 rebounds in 2009) as the only Blue Dragon players in history to reach the 20-rebound plateau.

Mickens, who scored eight points, and Dejanae Roebuck did most of the damage for the Dragons. Roebuck posted her third double-double of the season with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

The Dragons owned a 32-18 advantage in the paint. Hutch grabbed 20 offensive rebounds. Defensively, Hutchinson blocked eight shots, three each from Mickens and Roebuck.

Over all, the Blue Dragons shot 36.1 percent from the floor (22 of 61), including 3 of 14 from 3-point range and 16 of 23 from the free throw line. The Dragons still had turnover issues with 19 – Coffeyville outscored Hutch 23-8 in points off turnovers.

Tia Bradshaw was Hutchinson's leading scorer with 17 points and six assists. Coretta Hopkins had nine points and Alicia Brown added eight points and seven boards.

Hutchinson held a second-straight opponent to less than 30 percent shooting as Coffeyville was held to 26.3 percent (15 of 57). The Ravens hit 6 of 19 3-pointers and 17 of 24 from the foul line. Coffeyville committed only nine turnovers.

Kaylee Brown had 15 points to lead the Ravens. Lucy Burke and Nalon Smith had 11 points each.

Trailing 12-11 late in the first quarter, Hopkins scored in the paint with 1:38 remaining in the first quarter to give Hutch a 13-12 lead. That play sparked a 6-0 run to end the first quarter. A Roebuck jumper with 13 seconds to play in the period gave the Dragons a 17-12 lead, 14 of those points coming in the paint as Hutch shot 53.3 percent in the opening period.

That scoring run was extended to 12-0 on a Brown 3-pointer with 8:50 to play in the second and Hutchinson led 23-12. The Ravens hit a free throw to stop the run with 8:50 remaining in the second and didn't score a field goal for better than 4 minutes as the Dragons took a 25-13 lead on a Hopkins layup with 7:57 to play. Hutch held Coffeyville to 2 of 12 shooting in the second period and took a 36-23 lead at halftime.

The Blue Dragons outscored Coffeyville 8-4 over the first 5 minutes of the third quarter and built a game-high 17 point lead when Tia Bradshaw hit 1 of 2 free throws with 4:52 to play to give Hutch a 44-27 lead. Turnovers started to plague the Dragons late in the third quarter. A Brown 3-pointer cut the Dragon lead to 49-38 with 1:06 remaining in the third. Her two free throws with 1 second left in the third, cut the Dragon down to 51-41. Hutch was 2 of 13 shooting in the third quarter.

The lead shrunk to eight in the first 38 seconds of the final quarter, but a Brown layup and Tia Bradshaw 3-pointer over the next 50 seconds pushed the lead back to 13 at 56-43 with 8:35 to go. Both teams went scoreless for nearly 3 full minutes and the lead dwindled to 10 on Burke's three-point play with 4:09 to go. The Dragons scored four in a row on layups by Sara Cramer and Tia Bradshaw to go up 62-48 with 2:36 to play.