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Saints’ pressure too much for Conqs
women
By John Curtis www.dodgeglobe.com
The first taste of conference action for the Dodge City
Conquistadors women’s basketball team was very bitter after the Seward County
Saints scored nine straight points to record a 54-51 home victory at the Green
House in Liberal.
The Conqs (12-3, 0-1 Jayhawk West) were in a great position to force the Saints
to suffer their first loss of the season, but the Conqs missed their last six
shots (including two three-point attempts in the final eight seconds to tie the
game).
The Saints, meanwhile, used six points by sophomore Sierra Radke including four
free throws and three free throws by sophomore Amanda McCue to improve Seward
County’s home record since 1992 to 196-2.
“It was disappointing because not only were we letting them hit free throws, we
were stopping the clock when we were ahead by fouling,” said Dodge City head
coach Jim Turgeon. “I couldn’t say much more about that (except) that we just
didn’t get the ball inside enough to finish plays to win the game.”
Sophomore Beth Troutt led the Conqs in scoring with 17 (7-of-16 from the field),
while Freeman recorded another double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds.
Seda Erdogan scored 11 in the loss.
“I expect Beth and Seda play well all the time because they are great players,”
Turgeon said. “I was extremely pleased with Chanelle because she’s come back
from Christmas with a great attitude. She worked really hard and, in my opinion,
dominated the inside.”
McCue led Seward County with 13 points and nine rebounds, while Taushelle
Rushing added 12 in the win.
It looked like the Saints (15-0, 1-0, ranked fifth in the NJCAA) were in for an
easy time on their court as they used their press and half-court press to hound
the Conqs’ offense to take control at the start of the game. Dodge City missed
their first six shots and turned the ball over eight times in the first six
minutes as Seward County took a 10-0 lead, and increased the lead to 18-7 after
10 minutes of play.
The tide turned towards the Conqs’ favor as they clamped down on the Saints with
their defense. After the Saints took their largest lead of the half at 15, Dodge
City allowed only one Seward County field goal in the last five minutes of the
stanza and used a 15-3 run to close the gap to 29-26 at halftime.
“We probably played the worst 14 minutes of the game at the start on Seward’s
home floor,” Turgeon said. “To be able to come back like we did, I couldn’t be
prouder of our team.”
Dodge City forced the Saints to turn the ball over to start the second half and
a three-pointer by Troutt pushed the Conqs into a tie. The Conqs took its first
lead of the game midway through the second half with five points off of Saints
turnovers (Troutt hit a basket to tie the game and Erdogan hit a three-pointer
to push Dodge City ahead 38-35).
Another three by Erdogan pushed the lead to five with seven minutes left in
regulation. Seward County scored four points to take the lead with 5:25 left,
but Troutt’s third three-pointer and two baskets by Freeman gave the Conqs their
biggest lead at 51-45 with 3:07 left in the game.
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DODGE
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