Cold-shooting Tigers fall at Hutchinson 91-65

After falling to the Cowley College men's basketball team in November, the Hutchinson Community College Blue Dragons enacted some revenge with a 91-65 win over the Tigers Wednesday night at the Hutchinson Sports Arena.

Cowley, which scored 111 points in the win over Hutchinson in the first meeting between the teams, went 0-for-9 from three-point range and scored just 28 first-half points on Wednesday.

Things started well for the Tigers as they held an 11-5 lead early in the contest. However, Hutchinson would out-score Cowley 30-6 over the next 10 minutes of play to lead 35-17. The Blue Dragons got 13 first-half points from freshman Aaron Franklin as they took a 45-28 lead into the intermission.

Wednesday's game was a reunion of sorts as former Cowley head coach Tommy DeSalme, and assistant coach Eric Nitsche now lead the Blue Dragons. Former Cowley basketball player, Anthony White, is also on the Blue Dragons' coaching staff. While Cowley head coach Donnie Jackson was an assistant of DeSalme's for several years before starting his successful head coaching career.

The Blue Dragons' lead remained at 17 points (69-52) with 8:35 to play, but that would be as close as Cowley would get in the 26-point road defeat. The Tigers made just 3-of-19 three-point attempts, while Hutchinson went 13-of-32 from long range.

"Credit to Hutchinson, they were the better team," Jackson said. "They made some adjustments that caused us trouble. They are a well-coached team, and they showed that tonight."

Franklin led Hutchinson with 26 points as he and Aaron Potter (22 points) combined to go 11-of-19 from beyond the arc. Hutchinson (15-8) remains in front of the Tigers (13-10) in the Jayhawk Conference with a record of 9-8, while Cowley falls to 7-10.

Xavier Washington went 5-of-8 from the floor and led the Tigers with 15 points. Mekhi Cameron added 12 points but was 0-for-7 from three-point range.

Cowley will return home to face Independence Community College in the team's Homecoming game on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. The Tigers will look to avenge an earlier lopsided loss to the Pirates (8-15 overall, 6-11 in the conference), who have won their past three road games.

"We are running out of games to try and correct our issues," Jackson said. "It all starts in practice where we have to earn the right to win."