Blue Dragon women’s basketball avenges another loss by routing Coffeyville

By Colin Shields
Staff writer

After not playing in seven days, the Hutchinson Community College women’s basketball team won their seventh straight game Saturday night, defeating Coffeyville 84-60 at the Sports Arena.

The Blue Dragons dropped their contest on the road in Coffeyville earlier this year by just one point, in a tight 64-63 game. Blue Dragons coach John Ontjes said he felt that they have gotten better as the season has gone on.

“The more games we’ve gotten under our belt, we’ve improved defensively, we’ve improved in becoming a better rebounding team, and we’ve had more people step up to help us win,” Ontjes said.

Coffeyville jumped out to a quick three-point lead, but it was all Blue Dragons from there. Jump started by a pair of baskets from Mya Williams and Tor’e Alford, the Blue Dragons outscored Coffeyville 20-8 in the second quarter to build their lead up to 15 points going into halftime.

Coming out of the half, Hutchinson found a spark from Williams and Alford once again, as they combined to score 15 second half points to help stretch the lead to 28 points midway through the fourth quarter.

After not playing at Butler on Wednesday due to inclimate weather and being delayed once again due to icy road conditions the next day, Williams – the reigning KJCCC conference player of the week –  said they were ready to get back out on the court.

“We had fresh legs and we were just ready to go and play. We were really bummed we couldn’t play on Wednesday,” Williams said.

With the win, Hutchinson moved to 20-4 on the season. The Blue Dragons have now avenged three of their four losses – to Coffeyville, Barton and Independence – with Seward County set to travel to Hutchinson on Feb. 16. The Blue Dragons currently sit one game behind Independence for first place in the league standings.

“Every team we play we have a slogan, GATA, and we try to get our payback on every team, we want to be No. 1 in the conference at the end of the season,” Williams said.

The win was a special one for Ontjes, as he coached in his 500th career game and moved into a tie for the third most wins in KJCCC and Region VI history with 414.

“It’s hard to believe that I’ve been here for that many games, and it’s neat to be a part of the program with all the special teams, players, and coaches that have been a part of it. It’s pretty special.” Ontjes said.

The Blue Dragons will travel to Dodge City on Wednesday for a matchup against the 14-9 Dodge City Conquistadors at 5:30 p.m.

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