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Sports Basketball is back
The Hutchinson Collegian Friday, October 27, 2017
Athlete of the week
File photos/The Collegian Left: Hutchinson Community College’s JJ Rhymes takes the ball to the basket during the NJCAA men’s tournament last season at the Sports Arena. Right: HutchCC’s Alicia Brown puts up a shot during a game against Dodge City last season at the Sports Arena.
Men return some talented Women still expected to be players in effort to defend title strong despite few returning By Lucas Barlow Sports Editor Only eight months ago, the Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team won a national championship, just the third in school history. The team accumulated a near-perfect 35-2 record, led by NJCAA Player of the Year, Shakur Juiston. The Blue Dragons beat St. Petersburg, Odessa and Northwest Florida State to advance to the finals. They then handled Eastern Florida State Eck 84-58 en route to a championship. This season marks Steve Eck’s ninth as coach, and he looks to improve his younger players. “Our goal is to practice hard, get better everyday, and become as good as we can be,” Eck said. Eck’s team returns six players in all, but only one starter. He believes returning players, J.J. Rhymes (16 ppg.) and Devonte Bandoo (13.5 ppg.), will be a cou-
ple players to lead the Blue Dragon squad. As practices have been underway for just about a month, Eck looks to build his team in time for the first game. “We’ll need to establish a good defense, and build an offensive that encourages teamwork,” Eck said. “Forming chemistry and getting the team to play as hard as they can is the most important.” As defending national champions and back-to-back conference champs, the Blue Dragons are favorites to win the conference for a third time in a row, according to the Jayhawk Conference preseason coaches poll. “Every team wants to beat us,” Eck said. “We are a rival to everyone and we have a big target on our chest. Each game is important and it’s going to be tough.” The Blue Dragons open regular-season play as they host Friends University JV on Nov. 1. They begin conference play on Nov.11, when they take on Seward County Community College on the road in Liberal.
By Cassidy Crites Staff writer For the fourth time in the last five seasons, the Hutchinson Community College women’s basketball team was picked atop of the Jayhawk Conference for the 2017-2018 season. The Blue Dragons have won at least a share of the conference championship every season but one since 2011. After returning only three players from last year’s team, the 2017-2018 Blue Dragons feature new faces but still look to reload into another successful season. In 2016-2017, Hutchinson posted a 33-2 record. The team shared the Jayhawk Conference title, but won Region 6, competing at the NJCAA Women’s Division I National Tournament, playing in the second round. Sophomore guard Alicia Brown is the only player back who played in all 35 games last season. Brown averaged 7.1 points and 4.7 rebounds. Other returnees include sophomore guard Brianna Bradshaw and sophomore forward Kayla Barber. Bradshaw averaged 1.7 points on nine minutes per game, competing
in 27 games last season. Barber played in 28 games averaging 2.8 points and 2.1 rebounds. “We have a fairly new team with three returners and nine new kids. It will take us awhile to gain some chemistry,” said Hutchinson coach John Ontjes. Of the nine new players, the three newcomers to watch are freshman guard Tia Bradshaw and freshmen forwards Jada Mickens and Dejanae Roebuck. “Those are three newcomers that could be major contributors,” Ontjes said. Other new faces include freshmen guards Allissia Green, Coretta Hopkins, Kelsey Brett and Sara Cramer. Redshirt sophomore Tijuana Kimbro is at center, alongside freshman Fama Gueye, and rounding out the Blue Dragons is freshman forward Vivian Chigbu. Beginning his 11th season, Ontjes has become the program leader in coaching victories, assembling a record of 287-62 with a percentage of .822. Hutchinson opens up regular season play on Wednesday against the Bethany College junior varsity at the Sports Arena, with tipoff at 5:30.
(Oct. 15-21) Tatyana Ndekwe, volleyball The week: Ndekwe, one of the top middle threats for the Blue Dragons, had Ndekwe three solid performances in three victories. She had 14 kills to just two errors against Dodge City, five kills against Colby, and eight against Pratt. In the three matches, Ndekwe never had a worse hitting percentage than .333. She also had a hand in five blocks against both Dodge City and Colby. The season: Ndekwe is third on the team with 210 kills, and she’s the team leader with 129 blocks, or more than half the team total.
Roundup: Soccer to host Ravens in Region 6 By The Collegian staff The Hutchinson Community College women’s soccer team will open the Region 6 Tournament on Saturday at the Salthawk Sports Complex, as the Blue Dragons will take on Coffeyville Community College at 2 p.m. The Blue Dragons finished second in the Jayhawk West after losing back-to-back one-goal games to Cloud County. Monday’s 2-1 loss in Concordia gave the title to Cloud County. Should Hutchinson win, it would play Thursday in Topeka against either See Sports, Page 3
Football team falters in key conference game against Butler By Lucas Barlow Sports Editor
Merissa Anderson/Editor HutchCC’s Quen Head tackles the Butler quarterback during their game Saturday at Gowans Stadium.
On homecoming night, No. 16 Butler Community College spoiled No. 9 Hutchinson Community College’s fun, as the Grizzlies beat the Blue Dragons 38-10, snapping their five-game winning streak. Initially delayed six hours, the game didn’t get underway till 7:30 p.m. due to the chance of severe weather. The Blue Dragon offense never quite found their footing in the game
after a fumble that turned into a Grizzly touchdown on the opening drive. Butler scored only minutes later with a 39-yard touchdown pass on their first offensive play. The bleeding would only continue as they compiled 307 total yards to Hutchinson’s 171. The Blue Dragons hadn’t struggled as bad as they did since the first half of the first game this season against Coffeyville. Both teams had two turnovers a piece, but the Blue Dragons were heavily penalized during the game. Butler had three penalties for 20 yards, while Hutchinson
had 18 for 178 yards. B.J. Emmons was the leading rusher for the Blue Dragons, with 52 yards on 10 carries. Quarterback Cam Jones had 92 yards passing, but was sacked five times. Hutchinson falls to 6-2 on the season, while Butler improves to 6-2. Butler also leads the conference now, with a 4-2 record. The Blue Dragons play another important game when they travel to Independence Community College to take on the No. 6-ranked team in the country. Game time is 9 p.m. Saturday night.
Blue Dragon sports schedules, results. All home games, events in caps.
Cross country
Sept. 1, MASTERSON TWILIGHT CLASSIC, men 4th, women 3rd Sept. 16, at Missouri Southern State, men 9th, women 10th Sept. 30, at OSU Cowboy Jamboree, men 5th, women 7th Oct. 7, at FHSU Tiger Open, men 6th, women 6th Oct. 16, at Ollie Isom Invitational, men 5th, women 4th Oct. 30, Region 6 meet, Garden City
Football
Aug. 28, COFFEYVILLE, W 50-42 Sept. 2, at Iowa Western, L 27-21 Sept. 9, REZOLUTION PREP, W 91-0 Sept. 16, at Garden City, W 31-28
Sept. 23, HIGHLAND, W 13-10 2OT Sept. 30, IOWA CENTRAL, W 42-14 Oct. 14, at Ellsworth, W 25-13 Oct. 21, BUTLER, L 38-10 Oct. 27, at Independence, 6 p.m. Nov. 4, FORT SCOTT, noon Nov. 11, at Dodge City, 1 p.m.
Golf
Oct. 2-3, at Newman invitational, 6th Oct. 9-10, at Iowa Western, 4th Oct. 15-16, at NJCAA Preview, 8th Oct. 23-24, at Missouri Southern Invitational, 8th Oct. 30-31, at Dr Pepper Invitational
Men’s basketball (nonconference)
Nov. 1, FRIENDS JV, 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 3, NORTH LAKE, 7:30 p.m. Nov. 4, NEO, 7:30 p.m. Nov. 7, at Tabor JV, 7:30 p.m.
Soccer
Aug. 25, NORTHEAST NEBRASKA, W 3-0 Aug. 27, TRINIDAD STATE, W 6-0 Aug. 31, ROSE STATE, W 1-0 Sept. 6, HESSTON, W 4-0 Sept. 9, BARTON, W 6-0 Sept. 13, at Pratt, W 6-0 Sept. 16, at NW Kansas Tech, W 2-1 Sept. 20, DODGE CITY, W 8-0 Sept. 23, at Garden City, W 6-0 Sept. 30, at Hesston, W 4-0 Oct. 4, at Barton, T 1-1 Oct. 6, PRATT, W 4-0 Oct. 11, NW KANSAS TECH, L 4-0
Oct. 14, GARDEN CITY, W 14-0 Oct. 18, at Dodge City, 8-0 Oct. 21, CLOUD COUNTY, L 3-2, OT Oct. 23, at Cloud County, L 2-1
Volleyball
Aug. 25-26, at New Mexico Military tournament, 2-2 Aug. 30, GARDEN CITY, W 3-0 Sept. 1, at Cloud County, W 3-0 Sept. 6, DODGE CITY, W 3-0 Sept. 8-9, at Southern Idaho tournament, 2-2 Sept. 13, BUTLER, W 3-1 Sept. 16, at Colby, L 3-1 Sept. 18, at Barton, W 3-0 Sept. 20, at Pratt, W 3-0 Sept. 22-23, Blue Dragon Classic, 3-1 Sept. 25, at Garden City, W 3-0
Sept. 27, at Seward County, L 3-1 Sept. 29-30, at Tyler Invitational, 2-2 Oct. 4, CLOUD COUNTY, W 3-0 Oct. 9, at Butler, W 3-1 Oct. 11, BARTON, W 3-1 Oct. 13-14, at West Plains Classic, 2-2 Oct. 16, at Dodge City, W 3-0 Oct. 18, COLBY, W 3-0 Oct. 20, PRATT, W 3-0 Oct. 28, at Seward County, 6:30 p.m.
Women’s basketball (nonconference)
Nov. 1, BETHANY JV, 5:30 p.m. Nov. 7, LAMAR, 6 p.m. Dec. 29, Santa Fe, at Bradenton, Florida, noon Dec. 30, at Florida Southwestern, 2 p.m.