It’s no wonder none of the Wichita City League schools have Class 3A powerhouse and top-ranked Wichita Collegiate on their basketball schedule.
There’s a good chance they could get beat.
Class 6A Dodge City High School found out first-hand Saturday night at the Collegiate Field House, as the previously unbeaten Red Demons fell to the unbeaten and host Spartans 55-48.
“I’m sorry,” Dodge City head coach Dennis Hamilton said. “Collegiate (5-0) is an extremely good basketball team. It’s not like we lost to a team that wasn’t very good. This is a very good basketball team, and I will go on record that there’s a reason why Wichita City League teams don’t want to play them.
“Andover Central, they will play them, but there’s not a city league that will say ‘Yea, we’ll play you guys.’ They don’t want to risk the chance of getting beat by a 3A school. I think that was a tournament-style atmosphere and tournament-style competition, so we’re going to gain from this loss. It was our fifth game of the year and hopefully, we’ve got 20 games left in us.”
DCHS (4-1) trailed 31-29 at halftime and never did find its way in the second half, managing only 19 points in the final 16 minutes, including an 18-10 Collegiate run in the fourth quarter.
It didn’t help not having senior forward Terrence Williams in uniform after he suffered a sprained ankle in practice on Thursday.
“He came down after going up for a lob and he tweaked it really, really good,” Hamilton said. “It’s a Grade 2 (sprain), which normally takes seven-to-10 days, but we’re just playing it by ear right now. For Garden City (at home on Tuesday), I’d say 60-40 no.
“We have to prepare to go on without him and we could have should have (Saturday night) without him. We didn”t shoot very well from the free-throw line, we didn’t do a good enough of job of getting ourselves open and we turned the ball quite a bit. I guess I’ll take credit for a lot of our mistakes. We worked on some things, but we evidently didn’t work on them long enough.”
Dodge City shot just 38.5 percent from the foul line (5-for-13), committed 23 turnovers compared to 15 for Collegiate and made 20-of-46 field goals (43.5), missing several from close in.
“We missed a lot at the basket,” Hamilton said. “We were playing a pretty intense, competitive team and we more than likely just rushed things a little bit.”
The Demons limited the Spartans” leading scorer, Blake Joblonski, to 12 points. Joblosnki was only 3-for-14 from the floor, including 1-for-9 from beyond the arc.
Brett LeMaster scored 10 points, had seven rebounds and five steals and Bryce Cornejo added eight points and four assists for Collegiate, the consensus No. 1 in the 3A Kansas Basketball Coaches Association rankings.
“They’re all like a bunch of clones in that anybody on any given possession is capable of doing something,” Hamilton said.
Playmaking guard Rico Hogan led the Demons with 14 points, three rebounds and two assists. Hogan hit 6-of-11 shots from the floor, and committed eight turnovers.
Miles Morin, a 6-5 senior post player, added 12 points and six rebounds for the Demons. Forward Brandon Howarth came off the bench and turned in his best performance of the season, scoring eight points and grabbing eight rebounds.
“I think fatigue probably came to the forefront,” Hamilton said. “We basically went with seven players. Hindsight, yea, we could have worked a couple more in for breathers in the first half, but I guess when you get in a rhythm, you kind of hate to change things.”
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It’s no wonder none of the Wichita City League schools have Class 3A powerhouse and top-ranked Wichita Collegiate on their basketball schedule.
There’s a good chance they could get beat.
Class 6A Dodge City High School found out first-hand Saturday night at the Collegiate Field House, as the previously unbeaten Red Demons fell to the unbeaten and host Spartans 55-48.
“I’m sorry,” Dodge City head coach Dennis Hamilton said. “Collegiate (5-0) is an extremely good basketball team. It’s not like we lost to a team that wasn’t very good. This is a very good basketball team, and I will go on record that there’s a reason why Wichita City League teams don’t want to play them.
“Andover Central, they will play them, but there’s not a city league that will say ‘Yea, we’ll play you guys.’ They don’t want to risk the chance of getting beat by a 3A school. I think that was a tournament-style atmosphere and tournament-style competition, so we’re going to gain from this loss. It was our fifth game of the year and hopefully, we’ve got 20 games left in us.”
DCHS (4-1) trailed 31-29 at halftime and never did find its way in the second half, managing only 19 points in the final 16 minutes, including an 18-10 Collegiate run in the fourth quarter.
It didn’t help not having senior forward Terrence Williams in uniform after he suffered a sprained ankle in practice on Thursday.
“He came down after going up for a lob and he tweaked it really, really good,” Hamilton said. “It’s a Grade 2 (sprain), which normally takes seven-to-10 days, but we’re just playing it by ear right now. For Garden City (at home on Tuesday), I’d say 60-40 no.
“We have to prepare to go on without him and we could have should have (Saturday night) without him. We didn”t shoot very well from the free-throw line, we didn’t do a good enough of job of getting ourselves open and we turned the ball quite a bit. I guess I’ll take credit for a lot of our mistakes. We worked on some things, but we evidently didn’t work on them long enough.”
Dodge City shot just 38.5 percent from the foul line (5-for-13), committed 23 turnovers compared to 15 for Collegiate and made 20-of-46 field goals (43.5), missing several from close in.
“We missed a lot at the basket,” Hamilton said. “We were playing a pretty intense, competitive team and we more than likely just rushed things a little bit.”
The Demons limited the Spartans” leading scorer, Blake Joblonski, to 12 points. Joblosnki was only 3-for-14 from the floor, including 1-for-9 from beyond the arc.
Brett LeMaster scored 10 points, had seven rebounds and five steals and Bryce Cornejo added eight points and four assists for Collegiate, the consensus No. 1 in the 3A Kansas Basketball Coaches Association rankings.
“They’re all like a bunch of clones in that anybody on any given possession is capable of doing something,” Hamilton said.
Playmaking guard Rico Hogan led the Demons with 14 points, three rebounds and two assists. Hogan hit 6-of-11 shots from the floor, and committed eight turnovers.
Miles Morin, a 6-5 senior post player, added 12 points and six rebounds for the Demons. Forward Brandon Howarth came off the bench and turned in his best performance of the season, scoring eight points and grabbing eight rebounds.
“I think fatigue probably came to the forefront,” Hamilton said. “We basically went with seven players. Hindsight, yea, we could have worked a couple more in for breathers in the first half, but I guess when you get in a rhythm, you kind of hate to change things.”
