DODGE CITY

LADY CONQUISTADOR BASKETBALL

DCCC women have to regroup after second league loss

By John Curtis www.dodgeglobe.com

The Dodge City Conquistadors women's basketball team may have to take a step back to go forward after losing Saturday night to the Butler Grizzlies 62-57 in a Jayhawk West matchup at El Dorado.
The loss was the second straight for the Conqs (18-8, 6-6 Jayhawk West) as the team continues to try to fill roles they lost after the departure of guard Seda Erdogan due to a family emergency.

"This is a really tough loss for our team," said Dodge City head coach Jim Turgeon. "I don't want to make any excuses, but with Seda leaving, it kind of changed everything and making these type of adjustments late in the year is kind of disheartening.

"(Against Butler), Aroha Jennings and Beth Troutt was in foul trouble and fouled out, and we had some really unique lineups that we haven't had in the game at the same time all year long."

Turgeon said the difference of the game was the first five minutes of the second half where the Grizzlies (9-17, 3-9) scored the first eight points to take the lead after trailing the Conqs 33-27 at halftime.

"We talked at halftime about the first five minutes of the second half," Turgeon said. "I believed that whoever won that would win the game and Butler came out fired up and gained momentum."

Turgeon was pleased the Conqs played defense a lot better than they had the previous two games: Butler shot only 19-of-68 (27.9 percent) for the game.

But Dodge City could only force six turnovers and lost the ball 22 times in the loss.

"We got some good stops and got them to shoot what we wanted them to shoot; but what killed us was that we'd get the stops, but they'd get offensive rebounds and hit a shot or go to the free throw line."

Dodge City's next game will be another Jayhawk West showdown at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Civic Center against the Pratt Beavers. Turgeon said he hopes the team can get back on the winning track on the home floor.

"We'll practice Monday and try to bounce back from this," he said. "It's going to say a lot about our team in how we play Wednesday. Everything is new now, so we'll see how we respond."