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It wasn't pretty, but the Dodge City High School girls basketball team scrapped together a 41-27 victory on the road against Ulysses on Friday night.
"This was one of those wins that wasn't pretty, but we'll take it," said head coach Justin Briggs. "It's one that we're not happy with and we know we have a lot of work that needs to be done. The good thing is that this is only game four of a 20-game schedule and we wouldn't want to be peaking right now this early."
Being behind in the first quarter has been something the Demons have become used to this season, something Briggs has addressed before in an attempt to get his squad to fire on all cylinders from the tip.
The second quarter saw some more sloppy play, but Alexis Sanchez made a layup off a beautiful out of bounds play from Ciera Lampe to cut the deficit to only two.
Sanchez would turn right around and score again from close range to tie the game at eight each. She would end up scoring a game-high 14 points and grabbed five rebounds.
Dodge City would retake the lead on two Sanchez free throws, as she would end the game 4-of-4 from the charity stripe. With those two points, the Demons would go into the hall clinging to a 13-11 lead.
The third quarter is when the tides would turn and the Demons would puttheir foot on the neck of the Tigers.
After Ulysses tied the game up at 17 in the third quarter, Dodge City would go on 16-0 run to charge out in from 33-17. That scoring began thanks to a big three-pointer from Brenna Briggs, who would score her first points of the night on that basket.
"During the second half we were more patient and we were able to shift their zone defense, which gave us some open looks," Briggs said. "Over these next couple of days we will work on some things, but we will keep it fun. We'll then come back next week and prepare for Garden City."
Briggs finished with 10 points and seven rebounds, while Lampe would add in eight points of her own. Stephenson tied for the game-high with nine rebounds.
The Demons held the Tigers to a pedestrian 27% from the floor, forcing Ulysses into 24 turnovers. Dodge would also outrebound the home team by 10, which is something coach Briggs had been pushing from his team throughout this past week in practice.
"We're sitting okay, but we know we have a long ways to go to get to where we want to be," Briggs said. "The girls aren't satisfied with where they are and that's a good thing."
With the victory, the Demons win their third in a row and will head in winter break with a 3-1 record. Next up for Dodge is a Jan. 3 meeting with rival Garden City.
It wasn't pretty, but the Dodge City High School girls basketball team scrapped together a 41-27 victory on the road against Ulysses on Friday night.
"This was one of those wins that wasn't pretty, but we'll take it," said head coach Justin Briggs. "It's one that we're not happy with and we know we have a lot of work that needs to be done. The good thing is that this is only game four of a 20-game schedule and we wouldn't want to be peaking right now this early."
Being behind in the first quarter has been something the Demons have become used to this season, something Briggs has addressed before in an attempt to get his squad to fire on all cylinders from the tip.
The second quarter saw some more sloppy play, but Alexis Sanchez made a layup off a beautiful out of bounds play from Ciera Lampe to cut the deficit to only two.
Sanchez would turn right around and score again from close range to tie the game at eight each. She would end up scoring a game-high 14 points and grabbed five rebounds.
Dodge City would retake the lead on two Sanchez free throws, as she would end the game 4-of-4 from the charity stripe. With those two points, the Demons would go into the hall clinging to a 13-11 lead.
The third quarter is when the tides would turn and the Demons would puttheir foot on the neck of the Tigers.
After Ulysses tied the game up at 17 in the third quarter, Dodge City would go on 16-0 run to charge out in from 33-17. That scoring began thanks to a big three-pointer from Brenna Briggs, who would score her first points of the night on that basket.
"During the second half we were more patient and we were able to shift their zone defense, which gave us some open looks," Briggs said. "Over these next couple of days we will work on some things, but we will keep it fun. We'll then come back next week and prepare for Garden City."
Briggs finished with 10 points and seven rebounds, while Lampe would add in eight points of her own. Stephenson tied for the game-high with nine rebounds.
The Demons held the Tigers to a pedestrian 27% from the floor, forcing Ulysses into 24 turnovers. Dodge would also outrebound the home team by 10, which is something coach Briggs had been pushing from his team throughout this past week in practice.
"We're sitting okay, but we know we have a long ways to go to get to where we want to be," Briggs said. "The girls aren't satisfied with where they are and that's a good thing."
With the victory, the Demons win their third in a row and will head in winter break with a 3-1 record. Next up for Dodge is a Jan. 3 meeting with rival Garden City.
Men
Dodge City fought back from a 16-point deficit on the road in Ulysses, but fell short in overtime to the Tigers, 44-40.
"Give the kids credit," said head coach Dennis Hamilton. "I'm proud of the way they responded. They left a lot of sweat out there on that court tonight and they played very hard. We're obviously not happy with the result, but we saw some spots and we're still finding our way."
Things did not start off well for Hamilton and his squad, as Ulysses made three consecutive threes to turn a 4-2 Dodge lead into an 11-4 first quarter lead for the home team.
Before the Demons knew it, the Tigers had charged out to a 21-5 lead and it looked as though the air had been deflated from beneath Dodge's sails.
Dodge City would make a little run to end the second quarter behind Jace Larson and Matt Goedeken, who brought the halftime deficit to 12.
The Demons would come out with their six-shooters blazing, outscoring the Tigers 16-10 in the third quarter, with the help of three point bombs from Adley Davis and Larson, who finished with a double-double on the night, 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Ulysses would go into the fourth leading 35-29, but the Demon defense clamped down, shutting out the Tigers offense and scored six points of their own, including a huge basket from Trey Hallman plus the free throw to tie the game at 35 with under a minute left.
The contest would go into overtime tied at 35 and Dodge would draw first blood with a Jonathan Taylor layup, but that would be the last time the Demons would see the lead.
The Tigers capitalized on cold shooting from Dodge to jump out to a small lead, but 3-of-11 free throw shooting from the Demons would prove to be the difference.
"We have got to be better at the free throw line because that's the difference in the ball game," Hamilton said. "If we shoot 50% from the line, we win the game in regulation. The things we need to fix are correctable and while we're not a good shooting team yet, I know we will be."
Hallman tied for the team lead with 12 points, also while adding six rebounds and seven assists to help boost the comeback.
With the loss, Dodge drops to 1-3 on the season and will prepare for a Jan. 3 meeting with Garden City at the United Wireless Arena.
