by Hutchinson CC Sports Information
Sophomore Abby Ogle posted her second career double-double and powered a key second-half surge by the Hutchinson Community College women’s basketball team on Saturday night.
Leading the Allen Red Devils by just 12 points with 4:10 to play in the third quarter, Ogle scored 13 points in the final 14 minutes of the game to lead the No. 7 Blue Dragons to an 81-51 Jayhawk Conference victory over the Red Devils in Hutchinson’s return from a 24-day holiday break.
The Blue Dragons improve to 14-1 overall and maintain a 0.5-game lead in the Jayhawk West over Seward County with a 6-0 league mark. Allen dropped its fourth game in a row and falls to 6-9 overall and 1-5 in the Jayhawk East.
The Blue Dragons had leads as large as 21 points early in the third quarter, but the Red Devils started to chip away at that deficit, getting it down to 42-30 after an Ariel Walker layup with 4:10 remaining in the period. From that point, the Blue Dragons closed the third quarter on a 16-4 run and outscored Allen 39-21 in the final 14 minutes of the game.
Four Blue Dragons overall scored in double figures in Hutchinson’s eight-straight win over the Red Devils.
Sophomore Makayla Vannett (Ojibwe) hit four first-half 3-pointers and finished with 13 points. Vannett is now in sole possession of sixth place on Hutch’s career 3-point list, breaking a tie with Heather Robben (2008-10). Vannett now has 141 career treys. Vannett also surpassed the career 600-point plateau, now with 609 points.
Sophomore Brooklyn Betham scored nine of her 12 points in the second half. Betham also had seven rebounds. Freshman Kyra Paniora had 10 of her 12 points in the second half. She added five assists.
The Blue Dragons finished the game shooting 34 of 71 from the floor (47.9 percent). The Dragons had a season-low four 3-pointers in 18 attempts and again struggled from the foul line, hitting 9 of 20.
Hutchinson out-rebounded Allen 53-34. Freshman Nafatoumata Haidara had 10 rebounds. The Dragons also had 20 turnovers.
Walker scored 17 of her team-high 20 points in the final two quarters to lead Allen. Walker was 5 of 14 shooting, but hit 8 of 12 free throws. Courtney Crippen finished with 12 points.
Allen was limited to 29.3 percent shooting overall (17 of 58), going 5 of 21 from 3-point range and 12 of 22 from the foul line. The Red Devils committed 25 turnovers.
Hutchinson led just 7-4 at the mid-point of the first quarter. Vannett hit three 3-pointers in the final 5 minutes of the quarter to spur a 10-2 run to close the period and lead 17-6.
Vannett’s fourth 3-pointer of the game boosted the Dragon lead to 24-8 with 6:55 remaining in the second quarter. The lead grew to 18 after a Paniora layup with 4:48 to go and went to 19 after a Haidara free throw with 2:11 to play in the second. Allen scored six unanswered points to pull within 13 before Sasha Francis closed the half with a left-handed layup with 3 second remaining in the period to give Hutchinson a 34-19 lead at halftime.
Betham scored with 8:38 remaining in the third quarter to give the Dragons a 40-19 lead. Over the next 4 minutes, 28 seconds with Walker leading the way, the Red Devils made a serious run at Hutchinson. Walker scored eight points in an Allen 11-2 run that pulled the Devils within 42-30 with 4:10 to go in the period. The Dragons answered with a quick 6-0 run to make it 46-30 with 2:32 to play in the period. That was the start of a 16-4 run to close the third quarter and lead 58-34.
Hutch outscored Allen 23-17 in the fourth quarter.
