The hangover from the knock-your-socks-off 53-51 Tournament of Champions semifinal loss to Gardner-Edgerton lasted eight minutes into Saturday’s third-place game for Dodge City.
The Red Demons looked to be in trouble after falling behind Hutchinson 20-15 after the opening quarter of consolation-game action.
Yet Dodge City picked itself off the deck, survived the gut-check, clamped down defensively and limited the Salt Hawks to only 23 points over the next three quarters in grinding out a 56-43 victory to secure the third-place trophy.
“It was a nice character win for our team,” DCHS coach Dennis Hamilton said.
It also helped having sophomore point guard Rico Hogan in a shooting trance. Hogan lit up the Dodge City Civic Center scoreboard for a career-high 27 points, knocking down 9 of 14 shots, including 6-for-10 from downtown.
“He shot the ball well,” Hamilton said of 5-foot-10 Hogan. “They went into that zone and when they did, we got him a couple shots off out of bounds plays and brought him off some screens to get him a few more looks.
“He also played good defense.”
Hogan, who got his shots in rhythm through the flow of the Demons’ offense, accounted for nearly half of their points. Landon Head, a 6-3 power forward, also came up big, scoring 13 points and dishing out four assists. He made three steals while helping bottle up Hutch post player Geneo Grissom, who managed only six of his team-high 16 points after halftime.
“Landon Head, in my opinion, played his three best days of basketball,” Hamilton said. “Back-to-back-to-back with the caliber of athletes that we’re asking him to guard (like Gardner-Edgerton’s Bubba Starling and Grissom). He’s a little undersized, but Landon was big for us, also.”
Dodge swingman Terrance Williams, a 6-3 senior, added 12 points and three rebounds, and Miles Morin totaled 10 rebounds in a complete team defensive gem.
“Look at Miles Morin,” said Hamilton of the 6-5 senior post player, who had a career-high 18 points and nine boards in the semifinal loss. “He doesn’t score a point (against Hutch), but he goes out and gets 10 rebounds.That’s great.
“Terrance is solid. He does a lot of good things. His shot wasn’t falling as much as he or we would have liked the last couple games, but I’m not worried about Terrance. He’ll probably get off 500 shots Sunday afternoon somewhere in a gym.”
Dodge limited the Salt Hawks to only two second-quarter points and took a 25-22 lead into the dressing room at halftime after Williams converted a three-point play and then drained a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 36.5 seconds left in the second quarter.
The Demons outscored Hutch 16-13 in the third quarter and then slammed the door shut on the Salt Hawks with a 15-8 surge over the final eight minutes.
Dodge won going away despite being outscored 16-4 on second-chance points and outrebounded for the game, 30-28.
“They did a great job getting the inside to their big guy and we had a hard time getting around,” Hamilton said of Hutch’s opening-quarter flourish. “We tried to attempt to front him and had problems. Grissom (6-5, 240), he’s an athlete with a lot of size.
“There was a little funk in the air, and it took a quarter to shake off the cobwebs and get out and get after it,” Hamilton said. “Give Hutch a lot of credit. They came out with a passion early on that we maybe didn’t quite have.”
That passion reverted to Dodge the rest of the way.
67th Annual Tournament of Champions
At Dodge City
Dodge City Civic Center
Saturday
Third Place
Dodge City High School 56,
Hutchinson 43
HUTCHINSON (5-3)
Tyler Fee 0-0 0-0 0, Deveon Dinwiddie 4-4 0-0 8, Ben Fangman 0-2 0-0 0, Ronald Boyd 0-3 0-2 0, Geneo Grissom 7-13 2-4 16, Justin Goetz 2-6 0-0 4, Deshawn Dinwiddie 2-5 2-3 6, Scott Weber 2-6 0-1 5, Ted Dower 0-1 0-2 0, Jerome Roehm 0-0 0-0 0, Sean Goodwin 2-6 0-0 4, Trevor Turner 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 19-48 4-12 43.
DODGE CITY (9-2)
Rico Hogan 9-14 3-4 27, Trey Hallman 0-0 2-2 2, Landon Head 4-12 4-4 13, Benito Sotelo 0-1 0-0 0, Brandon Howarth 0-0 0-0 0, Terrance Williams 4-12 3-3 12, Miles Morin 0-1 0-0 0, Derek Ridenour 1-1 0-0 2, Matt Esquibel 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-41 12-13 56.
Hutchinson 20 2 13 8 — 43
Dodge City 15 10 16 15 — 56 Three-point goals — Hutch 1-10 (Weber 1-3 Goetz 0-3, Boyd 0-2, Dower 0-1, Des. Dinwiddie 0-1); Dodge 8-17 (Hogan 6-10, Williams 1-5, Head 1-1, Sotelo 0-1). Total fouls — Dodge 28, Hutch 16. Fouled out — None. Rebounds — Hutch 30 (Dinwiddie 8, Grissom 5, Goodwin 5); Dodge 28 (Morin 10, Hogan 5, Head 3). Assists — Dodge 9 (Head 4); Hutch 6 (Des. Dinwiddie 3). Steals — Dodge 7 (Head 3); Hutch 6 (Dev. Dinwiddie 3). Turnovers — Dodge 11, Hutch 11. Blocked shots — Hutch 3 (Grissom, Goetz, Goodwin); Dodge (None).
