Alan Hoskins, Supervisor of Public Information
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
College Advancement
Having a season come to an end is difficult enough but Kansas City Kansas Community College basketball teams took a double jolt Tuesday, crossing virtually the entire state of Kansas for their seasons to come to an end.
The Blue Devil men were eliminated from the Region VI playoffs by Seward County 85-66 in Liberal eight hours away in the far southwest corner of the state while the Lady Blue Devils were losing seven hours away in Garden City 68-54.
Despite the loss, the Blue Devil men finished 21-10, only the fourth team to ever win 21 games in a season. Trailing 33-28 at the half, KCKCC led 52-51with nine minutes to go only to have Latiq Agard’s put back goal ignite the Saints on a game-ending 34-14 run.
Scott Fruehling led KCKCC with 18 points including five three-pointers; Dennis Tinnon posted his 11th double-double in his last 15 games with 16 points and 11 rebounds; Andre Metoyer just missed a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds and Derick Denny added three three-pointers in four attempts despite playing on a sore right ankle.
The Blue Devils actually out-shot the Saints .472-.453 and were even on the boards 33-33 but committed 23 turnovers to just eight for Seward (23-8). Agasrd had 29 points and Marky Nolen 21 for Seward.
Playing without head coach Valerie Stambersky, whose father, Tom Scott, passed away Sunday, the Lady Blue Devils fell behind 39-29 at halftime as Garden City was 17 of 33 from the field for 51.5 percent. The Blue Devils’ Alyssa Rushton led all scorers with 23 points while Melanie Phipps added 11 points and eight rebounds and Sarah Craft nine points and five rebounds.
The loss ended the Lady Blue Devils season at 15-16. The 15 wins are the most in Stambersky’s 11 years at KCKCC and the most since the 15-16 season in Jill Phillips’ final season as head coach in 1999.