Turnovers haunt Lady Demons against Hays
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The Dodge City Lady Demons fell to the Hays Indians 50-47 in overtime Friday night.
It was a night full of turnovers for the Lady Demons, and the Lady Indians capitalized, outscoring Dodge City 22-5 off them.
The Lady Demons took an early lead at 3-0, and led 16-13 at the end of the first quarter, but Hays battled back, forcing the Lady Demons into 12 1st-half turnovers and recording 16 points off them while taking a 24-20 lead into halftime.
“We had some turnovers, we didn’t make our free throws, a lot of things could have gone different to where we could have sealed it,” Red Demon head coach Kelley Snodgrass said. “But then they would come back and hit a big 3. But the girls continued to chip away and fight and push it into overtime and I thought we had the momentum going into there.”
In the third quarter, Dodge City got back into the game with an 11-2 run on the way to outscoring Hays 14-7 in the quarter to take a 34-31 lead into the fourth.
Junior Payton Magouirk had the last five points of the third, tying the game then giving the Red Demons the lead to end the quarter.
She had eight points Friday night on 3-of-3 shooting, including 2-2 from deep.
″(Magouirk’s performance) was great, and I talked to the girls,” Snodgrass said. “We’ve gotta get the ball to the hot-hand. She came in, hit two big shots for us and then we didn’t go back at her. Payton is a force inside, and I felt like we didn’t utilize her. When somebody’s having a good game, we really need to get the ball in their hands.”
Hays tied the game at 36-36 with 5:34 left in the fourth before taking the lead with 38-36 with just under three minutes left. Hays then hit a 3-pointer before committing a travel to turn the ball over on their next offensive possession.
With under three minutes left in regulation, Hays took a 43-36 lead. Dodge City took a timeout with 1:15 left, then scored to make the score 43-38 with 53.1 seconds left.
On the next drive, sophomore Chidera Okoro drove to the basket and scored to make the score 43-40 in favor of Hays, at which point Hays took a timeout with 15.7 seconds.
Unruh had an otherwise rough night, but with 15.7 seconds left, she got the ball, put a quick move on her defender at the 3-point line and fired a shot that hit high off the backboard and tied the game at 43-43 with five seconds left.
Hays ended up winning the game in the coming overtime, but one of the resounding strengths for the Lady Demons all night was Okoro.
She had a double-double with a team-high 15 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.
“I can’t say enough about Chidera Okoro,” Snodgrass said. “She’s playing really good basketball at both ends. It’s not just offensively and rebounding, she has to lock down their best offensive player. She has to guard their best player and she just leaves it all out on the court, so she’s doing great right now.”″
Hays 50, Dodge City 47 (Overtime)
Hays: 13 11 7 12 7 -50
Dodge City: 16 4 14 9 4 -47
H – Nunnery 6-12 0-0 14, Leiker 2-7 0-2 4, Robben 3-10 0-2 6, Schneider 3-10 1-2 7, Hutchinson 0-7 2-2 2, Dale 0-0 0-0 0, Hertel 0-0 0-0 0, Denning 6-8 2-2 17.
DC – Armstrong 1-9 0-0 3, Williams 1-6 3-7 5, Unruh 4-13 0-0 12, Gleason 1-4 0-0 2, C. Okoro 7-11 1-2 15, Magouirk 3-3 2-2 8, Garcia 0-2 0-0 0, Sanchez 1-1 0-2 2.
