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Lady Demons
The beast was unleashed Friday night inside of the Dodge City Field House, as the Lady Demons were looking for blood after their last-second defeat on Tuesday night against Garden City.
Larned just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Dodge City used a 24-4 second quarter to blow out the visiting Lady Indians 51-29.
The game began well for the Demons, which was different than there usual deficit in the first quarter. This time, the girls stepped up their games after being challenged by head coach Justin Briggs during practice this week.
He vowed that the people in attendance would see a different team come Friday night and he delivered on his words.
The Demons jumped out to the early lead thanks to a couple of three point buckets from Brenna Briggs, who leads the team in that category, and the quick hands of Ashley Stephenson, who dislodged many Larned possessions, finishing on the other end.
"Ashley's first-step quickness can be deceiving, she gets her hands on a lot of loose basketballs and obviously tonight she was shooting well and we try to get her the ball as much as we can," Briggs said.
Dodge's lead would have been bigger, but Larned's Danette Unruh knocked down two long-range shots, including one three-pointer, to allow the Indians to creep back into the contest 13-9.
That is when Briggs and company put the pedal to the floor and clamped down on defense against a turnover prone Larned offense.
Stephenson picked up steal after steal on her way to six for the whole game, which turned into easy transition points for the Demons, which amounted to 25 points off of 26 Larned turnovers.
"We got quite a few turnovers tonight, got some easy looks and it was an overall great effort from everybody out there," Briggs said.
Despite only scoring two points in the third quarter, the Demons were able to limit the Indians to only 16 second half points, not allowing one quarter of double digit scoring for the visiting squad.
They were led in points by Stephenson, who put in 17 points, while also grabbing five rebound and picking away those six steals. Briggs finished the night with 12 points on four three-point baskets and led the team with six assists.
Katrina Roenfeldt produced perhaps her best game of the season, going 2-of-4 from behind the arc for 10 points and also picking up three more steals for the game.
"Overall I thought our girls were really aggressive tonight, we worked on more man defense than we normally do, tonight and for the most part we did a good job attacking the basket," Briggs said. "We did well shooting from the outside, but we still didn't quite get the interior play that we wanted, but we were able to get some fouls in the paint and get some free throws."
Next up for the Demons will be a meeting with Western Athletic Conference member Great Bend on the road, and Briggs is hoping this game was a boost to the team's morale as they continue to fight for position within the conference.
"Hopefully this game gave a lot of people confidence tonight, a lot of girls got a lot of minutes that they normally wouldn't have gotten, just because we changed our lineup a little bit," Briggs said. "Great Bend has struggled a little bit this year, but I know their coach does a great job and that their team is not one to overlook."
Lady Demons
The beast was unleashed Friday night inside of the Dodge City Field House, as the Lady Demons were looking for blood after their last-second defeat on Tuesday night against Garden City.
Larned just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Dodge City used a 24-4 second quarter to blow out the visiting Lady Indians 51-29.
The game began well for the Demons, which was different than there usual deficit in the first quarter. This time, the girls stepped up their games after being challenged by head coach Justin Briggs during practice this week.
He vowed that the people in attendance would see a different team come Friday night and he delivered on his words.
The Demons jumped out to the early lead thanks to a couple of three point buckets from Brenna Briggs, who leads the team in that category, and the quick hands of Ashley Stephenson, who dislodged many Larned possessions, finishing on the other end.
"Ashley's first-step quickness can be deceiving, she gets her hands on a lot of loose basketballs and obviously tonight she was shooting well and we try to get her the ball as much as we can," Briggs said.
Dodge's lead would have been bigger, but Larned's Danette Unruh knocked down two long-range shots, including one three-pointer, to allow the Indians to creep back into the contest 13-9.
That is when Briggs and company put the pedal to the floor and clamped down on defense against a turnover prone Larned offense.
Stephenson picked up steal after steal on her way to six for the whole game, which turned into easy transition points for the Demons, which amounted to 25 points off of 26 Larned turnovers.
"We got quite a few turnovers tonight, got some easy looks and it was an overall great effort from everybody out there," Briggs said.
Despite only scoring two points in the third quarter, the Demons were able to limit the Indians to only 16 second half points, not allowing one quarter of double digit scoring for the visiting squad.
They were led in points by Stephenson, who put in 17 points, while also grabbing five rebound and picking away those six steals. Briggs finished the night with 12 points on four three-point baskets and led the team with six assists.
Katrina Roenfeldt produced perhaps her best game of the season, going 2-of-4 from behind the arc for 10 points and also picking up three more steals for the game.
"Overall I thought our girls were really aggressive tonight, we worked on more man defense than we normally do, tonight and for the most part we did a good job attacking the basket," Briggs said. "We did well shooting from the outside, but we still didn't quite get the interior play that we wanted, but we were able to get some fouls in the paint and get some free throws."
Next up for the Demons will be a meeting with Western Athletic Conference member Great Bend on the road, and Briggs is hoping this game was a boost to the team's morale as they continue to fight for position within the conference.
"Hopefully this game gave a lot of people confidence tonight, a lot of girls got a lot of minutes that they normally wouldn't have gotten, just because we changed our lineup a little bit," Briggs said. "Great Bend has struggled a little bit this year, but I know their coach does a great job and that their team is not one to overlook."
Red Demons
Coming of a nine-point win over their rival Garden City on Tuesday night, the Dodge City Red Demons looked to continue their 2012 resurgence with a home game against Larned.
The Indians brought in a little bit of a different lineup than a season ago, starting three sophomores, which head coach Dennis Hamilton looked to take advantage of early on — and they did.
The Demons outscored the Indians in every quarter, including a shutout in the fourth, to breeze through with a 63-24 victory.
"I thought we played an excellent game, we really did, our kids came out and after about two minutes into the game, I felt we set a good tone for where we wanted to be," Hamilton said. "I thought we executed on the offensive end when we needed to, thought we rebounded well, defended very well, forcing 21 turnovers. I thought we attacked in the full court well when the opportunity presented itself."
Things began very well for the Demons as senior Trey Hallman demonstrated why he is one of the top talents in the WAC, cutting through the Indian defense to set up his teammates and making circus shots that would beat anybody in a game of "horse."
Dodge jumped out to an early lead thanks to all-around play of Jordan Doan, Adley Davis and Kelan Newton, who have taken a whole new liking to this rebounding thing that can change momentum in games.
After outscoring Larned 16-5 in the first quarter, it was more of the same for the Demons in quarter number two, settling into their offensive motion despite having a second unit on the floor.
Even though Larned had their best quarter of the game, the Demons still outscored the visitor by nine and went into the half up by 18.
The second half was more of the same for both sides, as Larned could not break the defense that the Demons were employing and Dodge City was finding ways to score throughout their entire lineup.
The leading score for the Demons was Hallman with 10 points on only 3-of-4 shooting. He only had five assists against one turnover, which will prove crucial come crunch time.
The Demons had even scoring throughout the lineup with Davis scoring nine, Newton scoring eight, and Doan and Matt Goedeken scoring seven each.
As a team, Dodge City outrebounded the Indians by 13 and every Demon on the roster had at least one rebound on the night.
"Aggressive rebounding was key number one on our board during our pre-game talk," Hamilton said. "I thought we were very solid, even last Tuesday against Garden. That just has to be a mentality, a staple that we bring to the court every day in practice and every game. If we just fundamentally do it, we can hang and we can outrebound a lot of teams."
The Demons held the Indians to only 29 percent shooting and didn't allow them to make one three-point attempt, forcing them to go 0-for-12 from behind the arc.
Dodge City will take on Great Bend on the road next Friday night with a chance to go 2-0 in the conference and get to 4-3 on the season.
