The Dodge City girls basketball team has gone virtually unchallenged during Western Athletic Conference play this season. That continued on Friday night when the Red Demons beat the Great Bend Panthers 57-34 to win their second consecutive WAC title.

The Red Demons (13-5, 6-0) were happy to win another WAC title but they know that the job is not done yet. The Dodge City girls have won 16 straight WAC games and with two conference games remaining, the opportunity for a second undefeated season in conference play is still on the table.

“(Going undefeated) is definitely a goal but we have to take it one game at a time,” Dodge City head coach Kelley Snodgrass said. “Liberal and Hays have gotten much better. We’ll have to be ready and play at our best.”

Dodge City started the game on an 11-2 and never looked back. A 3-pointer from Brianna Bradshaw pushed the Red Demons’ lead to 16-4 with two minutes to go in the first quarter and Great Bend (10-7, 5-2) was never able to cut it to single digits.

“They were ready,” Snodgrass said about her team. “Defensively we got stops and we hit some big shots. (Bradshaw) did a good job of hitting from the outside early. We made the extra pass and found our teammates.”

When the two teams met in their WAC opener back in January, Dodge City beat the Panthers 52-36. That day, Great Bend was without standout senior Lauren Welsch. On Friday, Welsch’s presence nearly went unnoticed.

The Red Demons defense held the senior guard to five points in the first half and 12 points total. Dodge City also held sophomore Carley Brack to five points.

“I think all of my guards did a good job on those two defensively,” Snodgrass said. “Brack is a great shooter and Lauren Welsch is a lot to handle.”

Senior Baily Shelor led Dodge City with 13 points. Just behind her was junior Tia Bradshaw with 11 points and Brianna Bradshaw with 10.

DODGE CITY BOYS 70, GREAT BEND 46.

The Great Bend Panthers put up a fight for three quarters but a 19-0 Dodge City run over the first five minutes of the the fourth quarter secured a 70-46 Dodge City win.

Keeping the momentum

By John Zetmeir

Dodge City Daily Globe

DODGE CITY GIRLS (12-5, 5-0) VS. GREAT BEND (10-6, 4-1)

The Dodge City High School girl’s basketball team has a Western Athletic Conference title on the line when they host Great Bend on Friday night. The Red Demons sit just one game above Great Bend in the WAC standings with three games left to play.

The Red Demons beat Great Bend 52-36 in their WAC opener but a lot has changed for the Panthers since the early meeting. Senior Lauren Welsch has returned from an injury that sidelined her earlier this season.

‘Welsch makes a big difference,’ Dodge City head coach Kelley Snodgrass said. ‘She’s scored 20 (or more points) in quite a few of the games. She’s their floor general and she’s a very tough-minded kid.’

The Red Demons, last season’s WAC champions, have not lost a conference game since losing to the Panthers in February of 2014. They have won their last 15 conference contests.

Dodge City heads into Friday’s matchup riding a four game winning streak. It was a streak that began with a 45-39 win over McPherson, who was 12-1 when the two teams met.

While Snodgrass is happy that her team is playing their best basketball of the season at the moment, she would still like to see her team play their best basketball for an entire game.

‘I want to play four quarters of strong basketball,’ Snodgrass said. ‘I think we’ve played well for two (quarters), well for three (quarters), played good defense and played good offense. Four quarters of good basketball both offensively and defensively is what I want to see.’

Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Dodge City High School.

DODGE CITY BOYS (8-9, 3-2) VS. GREAT BEND (4-13, 2-3)

The Dodge City boys can shed their losing record on Friday night when the Great Bend Panthers come to town.

The Red Demons have won their last three games to put them back in the running to host one, or even possibly two, substate games. ‘It would be nice to get back to (an even record), considering where we were about three weeks ago,’ Dodge City head coach Dennis Hamilton said. ‘Our kids are starting to see the benefits, record wise, of everything that we are putting in now.’

In the first meeting with the Panthers, Dodge City topped Great Bend in their WAC opener. While the Red Demons beat Great Bend on their home floor by double-digits, Hamilton emphasized that his team better not overlook Friday’s game.

‘Great Bend has improved, dramatically,’ Hamilton said. ‘We cannot overlook them, we aren’t that good. We are a bluecollar team that has to show up and grind every night.’

Senior Dayton McGroarty has continued to be the Red Demons most reliable scoring threat, averaging 13.1 points per game. Despite having just one player averaging doubledigit scoring totals, Dodge City has three players not far behind McGroarty averaging eight points or more.

‘I think it’s hard to concentrate on just one of our players to shut down,’ Hamilton said. ‘They want to slow everybody down but we always have someone picking the rest of the team up. We’ve been putting three in doublefigures and it hasn’t always been the same three.’

Dodge City sweeps season series with WAC rival

By John Zetmeir

Dodge City Daily Globe

When the Dodge City Red Demon girls hosted Garden City last week, it was the Buffaloes that jumped out to an early lead. In Monday’s rematch, the Red Demons suffocating defense held the Buffs off of the scoreboard for the first nine minutes of the game in Dodge City’s 47-25 win.

The Red Demons led Garden City 12-0 after the first quarter. Garden City’s 12 point second quarter was the only quarter in which they scored in double-digits. Dodge City (12-5, 5-0) finished with 28 steals and forced a staggering 40 turnovers.

“We were playing good team defense,” Dodge City head coach Kelley Snodgrass said. “I thought they were aggressive and we got some steals. Attribute that to our defense but we had good rotations and we knew where their shooters were.”

Jessica Harshberger led the Red Demons in almost every category. The senior guard scored 12 points, grabbed six rebounds and had six steals.

Tuesday’s win was the fourth in a row for Dodge City. Next up for the Red Demons is Great Bend, whose only Western Athletic Conference loss this season is to Dodge City.

DODGE CITY BOYS 79, GARDEN CITY 45.

Last Monday, Garden City’s Jared Koster scored 22 points in the first half to get the Buffaloes off to a strong start. In Tuesday’s rematch, it looked like Koster was primed to have another strong first half but Dodge City’s Eric Reid stole theshowintheRedDemons’ 79-45 win.

Reid and Koster traded 3-pointers twice before Dodge City’s senior guard knocked down two more shots from outside the arc to help give the Red Demons a 11-point lead. Dodge City stretched that lead to 21-points going into the halftime break. Reid scored 12 of his team-high 21 points in the second quarter.

“He got hot and his teammates found him,” Dodge City head coach Dennis Hamilton said. “You like to see good things happen to good kids and Eric is a great kid. He did steal the show. He is our sharpshooter from behind the arc.”

Dodge City dominated the rebounding battle against the Buffaloes for the second time this season. The Red Demons out-rebounded their WAC rivals 38-21.

Their 79 points was a season-high for Dodge City.

The Red Demons (8-9, 3-2) won their third straight game, a streak that began with the win over Garden City last week.

Both teams will be back in action on Friday when the Red Demons host Great Bend. The girls are schedule to tipoff at 6 p.m. with the boys team following.

DODGE CITY GIRLS – 12 19 10 6 – 47

GARDEN CITY – 0 12 6 7 – 25 Dodge City – Harshberger 12, B. Bradshaw 8, T. Bradshaw 7, Nelson 7, Nichols 6, Shelor 3, Sowers 2, Maple 1, Morales 1. 15-50 14-24 47. DODGE CITY BOYS – 16 21 17 25 – 79

GARDEN CITY – 8 8 14 15 – 45 Dodge City – Reid 21, McGroarty 18, N. Williams 14, Unruh 8, Karns 6, D. Williams 5, Walters 4, Sanchez 2. 24-37 25-35. 79