An inability to consistently get stops led to a pair of losses for the Pratt Community College basketball teams last night in Garden City.
Garden City women 79, Pratt 52
The Beaver women hung tough with the fourth-place Lady Busters for a while, but a 12-0 Garden City run midway through the first half pushed their lead from 9-7 to 21-7 with 9:24 left.
Pratt made a run late in the half, getting a deep three from Jazmine Bell, a second-chance bucket from Corinna Hoyt and a layup by Bell — the latter two of those buckets coming off assists from Ricci Lambert. Bell’s layup with 3:54 left made it 29-18 Garden City, but the Busters rallied with eight straight points and took a 37-20 lead into halftime.
The Lady Busters maintained that lead throughout the second half, and stretched it to as many as 28 points as the Beavers just couldn’t come up with stops on a consistent basis.
The Beavers got 12 points each from Bell and Hoyt, but they were out-rebounded 54-29 and turned the ball over 21 times on the night.
Pratt fell to 4-23 on the season and 3-10 in Jayhawk West games, while Garden City moved into a third-place tie at 10-3 in the conference and 14-13 overall.
With three regular season games left, the Beavers have effectively clinched a spot in the Region VI tournament, and it looks like a trip to Arkansas City to face the Jayhawk East’s second-place team Cowley (18-9, 9-3) is in the cards for the first round.
Garden City women 79, Pratt 52
PCC: Jazmine Bell 3-13 5-8 12, Corinna Hoyt 3-8 4-5 12, Phylicia Freeman 4-13 0-0 9, Whitney Slater 2-6 2-3 7, Kiki Pinder 1-5 1-2 4, Abbey Rudd 1-2 0-0 3, Laramie Lawrence 1-4 0-0 3, Dashia Williams 1-1 0-0 2, Ricci Lambert 0-5 0-0 0, Kandece Money 0-0 0-0 0, Jordan Moss 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS 16-57 12-18 52.
GCCC: Jasmine Troup 10-14 1-3 21, Lamesia Abbott 6-12 0-0 15, Aubrica Robins 3-8 7-10 14, Marisela Rodriguez 5-10 1-2 11, Cheree Freeman 4-10 1-5 9, Victoria Naylor 3-6 0-0 6, Myranda Munoz 1-1 0-0 3, Aileen Gonzalez 0-1 0-0 0, Deidre Mays 0-3 0-0 0. TOTALS 32-65 10-20 79.
PCC 20 32 — 62
GCCC 37 42 — 79
3-point goals — PCC 8-27 (Hoyt 2-6, Bell 1-4, Freeman 1-5, Lawrence 1-2, Pinder 1-3, Rudd 1-1, Slater 1-5, Lambert 0-1), GCCC 5-9 (Abbott 3-4, Munoz 1-1, Robins 1-3, Gonzalez 0-1). Rebounds — PCC 29 (Lambert 5), GCCC 54 (Rodriguez 13). Assists — PCC 10 (Hoyt 3), GCCC 15 (Abbott, Naylor 3 each). Turnovers — PCC 21, GCCC 21. Total fouls — PCC 13, GCCC 15. Fouled out — Gonzalez. Technicals — None.
Garden City men 95, Pratt 64
The Beaver men struggled defensively for the second straight game, giving up far too many easy baskets to a surging Garden City team that now has a chance at catching PCC for fourth place in the conference.
The Busters shot 50.7 percent from the floor in the game and out-rebounded Pratt 50-32.
PCC stayed close early as Trent Thomas and Illiwa Baldwin provided all of Pratt’s first 12 points.
But after Baldwin scored with 16 minutes left in the first, Garden City ran off seven straight points to open up a 22-12 lead with 11 minutes on the clock.
The Beavers never could get enough stops to cut the lead to single digits as they trailed 47-26 at halftime and never really got back in contention after that.
Monty Gordon finished with 18 points while Baldwin and Thomas had ten each, but no Beaver controlled more than four rebounds and PCC turned the ball over 14 times while hitting just 39 percent of their shots.
Pratt dropped to 18-9 on the season and 7-6 in Jayhawk West games. The Beavers are a half-game ahead of Dodge City (19-9, 7-7) and just a game in front of surging Cloud County and Garden City, both 6-7 in the West.
The Beavers will need three good efforts in the final three games as they host No. 16 and first-place Butler (23-4, 11-2) Saturday night before traveling to No. 12 Hutchinson (23-4, 10-3). Pratt ends the regular season by hosting Barton County (14-14, 4-10) on Saturday, Feb. 27.
The Beavers can still catch Seward County (20-7, 9-4) for third place as the Saints must play Dodge City, Garden City, and Butler down the stretch.
Saturday’s games against Butler will begin at 6 p.m. for the womens contest and 8 p.m. for the mens game. The PCC women lost to Butler 79-76 in overtime in their previous meeting and a Pratt win or a Dodge City loss at Seward County will officially clinch a playoff spot.
Garden City men 95, Pratt 64
PCC: Monty Gordon 6-9 4-7 18, Illiwa Baldwin 3-4 4-6 10, Trent Thomas 3-7 2-7 10, Jay Valerius 2-3 3-8 7, John Rutherford 2-8 1-1 6, Marcus Smith 2-6 0-0 6, Trae Beck 2-9 0-0 5, Taner Hayes 1-6 0-0 2, Shaquille Hall 0-1 0-0 0, Jamar Reese 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS 21-53 14-29 64.
GCCC: Vincent Banks 11-16 1-2 28, Chris McHenry 6-11 1-2 18, Eric Griffen 8-10 0-1 16, Martell Jackson 5-13 4-4 14, Mike Morales 3-5 1-2 7, Bobby Wesley 1-4 2-2 4, Greg Farris 1-1 0-0 3, Avery Jirmnson 1-6 1-4 3, Travis Burley 1-2 0-1 2, Solomon Brown 0-2 0-0 0, Ronald Cobb 0-0 0-0 0, Andre Phillips 0-3 0-0 0. TOTALS 37-73 10-18 95.
PCC 26 38 — 64
GCCC 47 48 — 95
3-point goals — PCC 8-23 (Gordon 2-2, Smith 2-3, Thomas 2-5, Beck 1-5, Rutherford 1-7, Hayes 0-1), GCCC 11-23 (Banks 5-7, McHenry 5-9, Farris 1-1, Jirmnson 0-3, Phillips 0-2, Wesley 0-1). Rebounds — PCC 32 (Baldwin, Rutherford, Valerius 4 each), GCCC 50 (Griffen, Morales 8 each). Assists — PCC 6 (Gordon 2), GCCC 18 (Wesley 6). Turnovers — PCC 14, GCCC 8. Total fouls — PCC 19, GCCC 23. Fouled out — Morales. Technicals — Burley.
