Lady Demons overcome Garden City again
By Shelton Burch
Sports Editor
The Dodge City Lady Demons beat the Garden City Buffaloes for the third time this season, surviving a night of full of missed shots by both teams to win 33-29 Tuesday night.
Garden City shot 33.3 percent from the field. Dodge City shot 28.6 percent.
“I thought we got a huge board, Ezinne (Okoro) got a huge offensive put-back that kind of sparked us, we finally went to the free throw line toward the end and made some, we still have to get better about at that,” Dodge City Lady Demons head coach Kelley Snodgrass said. “But they persevered through. They sealed it with box-outs, we executed a little bit better down towards the end. But 28 percent (shooting) isn’t gonna win very many ballgames.”
Beating a rival three times in a single season is not something that happens every day. Having done so is big for the Lady Demons, Snodgrass said.
“Garden’s improving every day, they had a big win against Great Bend and they just continue to get better,” Snodgrass said. “They’ve got a lot of young talent as well.”
Still, the Lady Demons stepped up big and did it, Snodgrass said.
In last Friday’s loss Nickerson, the Lady Demons took too many shots from 3-point territory, Snodgrass had said after that game. In it, they attempted 28 3-pointers, making only four.
They missed all of their 3-pointers Tuesday night, but only took nine, attempting less than a third of Friday’s total.
Their play on the court Tuesday night reflected more focus on getting the ball inside.
Sophomore Chidera Okoro led all scorers with 13 points and a game-high eight rebounds. Freshman
Kisa Unruh had 11 points, as did Garden City’s leading scorer Josie Calzonetti.
Lady Demon junior Caroline Williams had five rebounds. She also had a game-high four assists, which was twice as many as any other player in the game.
Dodge City out rebounded Garden City 31-29.
“Chidera Okoro’s been playing really good basketball for us,” Snodgrass said. “We gotta get her more looks. I though she did a good job. Obviously she’s disappointed with how she finished from the free throw line but we need to look inside.”
That includes utilizing the players such as junior Hayden Sanchez more.
“She has a height advantage as well, and so we need to utilize our bigs and go inside-out whenever they take that away,” Snodgrass said.
The win also ended a three-game losing streak for the Lady Demons.
In the boys game, the Red Demons trailed 33-18 at halftime after a strong start by the Buffaloes.
In the third quarter, they cut into the lead with a 14-2 run, narrowing the score to 35-32 with 3:26 left, but Garden City ended it with a run of their own, expanding the lade to 48-35 by the end of the third.
The Red Demons ended up losing by a score of 68-53.
“I saw a sense of urgency (during that run) that we didn’t play with for the first 16 minutes and we didn’t play with after that,” Red Demons head coach Tony Starnes said. “I don’t know what to attribute that to. They were embarrassed, along with me, and they didn’t want to get blown out.”
Red Demon junior Noah Sowers had a game-high 18 points for the Red Demons. Senior Hunter Heath had 10 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Garden City’s Garrett Doll had a team-high 14 points for the Buffaloes
and a game-high eight rebounds.
Garden City shot 45.7 percent from the field, while Dodge City shot 33.3 percent. Garden City had 30 points off the bench compared to 13 by Dodge City. Garden City also out-rebounded Dodge City 35-28.
