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Entering Stretch Run, Blue Dragons Face Critical Road Test Sunday

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credit –  Blue Dragon Sports | Hutchinson Community College

Only four games remain in the 2015 regular season and the No. 21 Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team looks to take a huge step in securing a Region VI Tournament home game on Sunday.

The Blue Dragons (20-6, 7-5) Jayhawk West) travels west to take on the Colby Trojans (12-15, 3-10) at 4 p.m. at the Colby Community Building.

The game will be broadcast live on Blue Dragon flagship station KHUT-FM (102.9) and sister stations KWBW-AM/FM (1450/98.5) beginning at 3:50 p.m. The game will also be streamed live on the Blue Dragon Sports Network at 3:50 p.m.

The Blue Dragons are mired in a two-game losing streak to the two teams above them in the Jayhawk West standings, Butler and Barton. HCC is currently tied for third with Pratt (Wednesday’s opponent at the Sports Arena) and are just one game ahead of Seward County (Feb. 25 at the Arena).

Five teams are in the hunt for the final two home games awarded to Jayhawk West teams. Dodge City is at 6-7 and Garden City is 5-8 in the league standings.

HCC made a huge rally last Wednesday to get back within four of Barton after trailing by 20 points, but the Cougars dropped an 86-73 decision to the surging Cougars at the Sports Arena. HCC missed 14 of its first 17 shot attempts and found itself down 30-10 in the opening half.

Colby enters Sunday’s game on a four-game losing streak and are 1-6 since dropping a 101-70 decision to Hutchinson on Jan. 17 at the Sports Arena.

Last Wednesday, the Trojans, coached by former Blue Dragon Rusty Grafel and assistant coach Kevin Jolley, lost 80-54 to No. 5 Butler at El Dorado. The Trojans had 23 turnovers.

HCC freshman Bashier Ahmed had a huge game in that Jan. 17 meeting with 23 points and a season-high 15 rebounds. DeShawn Freeman added 20 points, Keanu Pinder had 16, Austin Budke had 14 and Che Bob added 10 as Hutchinson shot 52.7 percent from the field.

The 2015 Blue Dragons have become one of the best shot-blocking teams in the nation. HCC is averaging a Jayhawk West-leading 6.9 rejections per game, 7.5 blocks in conference play.

Just 26 games into the season, the Blue Dragons are just eight blocks away from surpassing the 2013 Region VI championship game as the all-time record holder.  The current Blue Dragons have 180, coming off 13 swats on Wednesday vs. Barton.

Game 27: No. 21 Hutchinson at Colby
Date: Sunday, February 15, 2015
Time: 4 p.m.
Site: Colby Community Building, Colby, KS
Live Radio: KHUT-FM (102.9); KWBW-AM (1450); KWBW-FM (98.5), 3:50 p.m.
Live Video: Blue Dragon Sports Network, 3:50 p.m.
Live Stats: Blue Dragon Sports Network
Twitter: @bluedragonsport

HUTCHINSON BLUE DRAGONS
2014-15 Record: 20-6
2015 Jayhawk West Record: 7-5
NJCAA National Rank: No. 21
Head Coach: Steve Eck, 6th season

COLBY TROJANS
2014-15 Record: 12-15
2015 Jayhawk West Record: 3-10
NJCAA National Rank: Unranked
Head Coach: Rusty Grafel, 3rd season

About the 2014-15 Blue Dragons
+ The Blue Dragons are averaging 82.5 points offensively, which is third in the Jayhawk West. HCC shoots 46.7 percent from the field (5th in West). The Dragons average a league-low 5.1 makes from deep and shooting 33.1 percent from behind the arc.

+ Getting to the free-throw line is a huge part of the Blue Dragons’ game. HCC is shooting 66.6 percent as a team. The Dragons are fifth in the Jayhawk and 19th in the NJCAA in made free throws at 20.7 per game.

+ The Blue Dragons are allowing 72.3 points per contest, which is third best in the Jayhawk West. The Blue Dragons are No. 1 in the Jayhawk West and No. 14 in the NJCAA in defensive field-goal percentage at 38.6 percent. The Blue Dragons are allowing 33.2 percent from behind the 3-point line with opponents averaging 7.6 made 3s. HCC has allowed 10 or more 3-pointers seven times this season.

+ In conference play, HCC is averaging 80.4 points per game offensively, shooting 44.3 percent overall and 31.8 percent from long range. HCC has shot just 66.5 percent from the free-throw line. Defensively, the Blue Dragons allow 76.3 points per game and are allowing 40.9 percent overall and 34.6 percent from the 3-point line.

+ Sophomore forward DeShawn Freeman is second in the Jayhawk West in scoring and is one of three players in double figures at 18.8 points per game. Freeman is fourth in the league shooting 55.6 percent overall and 65.2 percent from the foul line. Freeman is No. 2 in the Jayhawk West in rebounding at 9.2 caroms per game. Freeman has 11 double-doubles this season.

In conference play, Freeman is averaging 15.9 points and 9.2 rebounds per game shooting 51.9 percent.

+ Freshman Bashier Ahmed has seven double-doubles. He second on the team in scoring and fifth in the Jayhawk West at 16.5 points per game. He is shooting 46.7 percent from the field and has 35 3-pointers, shooting 38.0 percent from deep. Ahmed is HCC’s second-leading rebounder at 7.3 boards per game, which is fifth in the Jayhawk West. Ahmed has improved at the free-throw line, now up to 73.1 percent.

Ahmed is at 18.2 points per game, shooting 45.2 percent in conference play, averaging 7.1 rebounds per game.

+ Sophomore Austin Budke has a pair of 20-point games and three double-doubles  this season. He is third on the team in scoring at 12.0 points per game. Budke is shooting 44.0 percent and 73.6 percent from the foul line. Budke has been a workhorse in league games, averaging 11.8 points and 4.8 rebounds.

+ The Blue Dragons are averaging a strong 27.3 points per game off the bench. Freshman guard Akbar Hoffman is HCC’s leading scorer off the bench at 10.7 points per game and is averaging 11.7 points per conference game.  Hoffman is shooting 29.7 percent from long range with 33 3-pointers. Freshman Che Bob, who had a career-high 31 points against Northeast Nebraska, is at 9.7 points per game. He is shooting 45.5 percent overall, 35.9 percent from 3-point range and 72.5 percent from the foul line.

+ Hutchinson ranks second in the Jayhawk West in rebounding at 44.3 rebounds per game, including 15.2 offensive rebounds. The Blue Dragons allow 35.8 rebounds and 13.3 offensive caroms. HCC is a plus-4.9 rebounding margin in league play.

+ The Blue Dragons rank fourth of nine teams in the Jayhawk West in assists at 15.5 per game. Sophomore Zach Winter has a team-high 74. He had a stretch with 26 assists and just one turnover over four games.

+ Turnovers have been an issue for the Blue Dragons this season. HCC has had 15 or more turnovers in 18 of 26 games so far and more than 20 in eight of those games with a season high 27 against both Western Texas and North Lake College. The Dragons are turning the ball over 17.9 times per game, while forcing only 15.7.

+ Ahmed’s 41 steals leads a Dragon team that is fifth in steals at 8.8 per game.

+ The Dragons are the Jayhawk West leader and rank eighth in the NJCAA in blocked shots at 6.9 rejections per game. Keanu Pinder has a team-high 46 blocked shots. Moataz Aly has 39, Freeman has 29 blocks and Bob has 27.

Scouting Colby
+ Two-third of Colby’s coaching staff has direct Blue Dragon ties. Head coach Rusty Grafel and assistant coach Kevin Jolley were teammates on Hutchinson’s 2004 Jayhawk West championship team. Egan Grafel, the Trojans’ second assistant and Rusty’s brother, played at Cloud County.

+ Colby is ranked ninth in scoring in the Jayhawk West this season at 75.8 points per game. The Trojans are eighth in field-goal percentage (41.8 percent), fourth in made 3-pointers (6.3/game) and sixth in 3-point percentage (34.5 percent). Colby ranks last in the Jayhawk West in free-throw shooting at 57.8 percent.

+ Defensively, Colby is eighth in the Jayhawk West in scoring defense at 75.9 points per game. The Trojans rank sixth in total field-goal defense (42.5 percent) and sixth in defending the 3-pointer (37.5 percent).

+ Khyree Wooten is the fourth-leading scorer in the Jayhawk West at 17.3 points per game. He shoots 44.3 percent from the floor and averages 7.3 free-throw attempts per game while shooting 66.8 percent from the stripe. Wooten also averages 5.9 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.4 steals per game.

+ Bruce Watkins Jr. averages 14.2 points per game while shooting 35.9 percent. One of the top snipers in the Jayhawk West, Watkins is third in made 3s at 2.4 per game and shoots 36.7 percent from deep. Watkins also averages 3.6 assists and 1.7 steals.

+ Brian Starr is Colby’s third-leading scorer at 10.0 points per game. He averages 5.0 assists, which is fourth in the league.

+ Colby is the second-best rebounding team in the Jayhawk West at 43.1 rebounds per game. The Trojans are just a plus-1.2 in rebounding margin. Opposing teams average 41.9 boards per game.

+ Colby averages 15.2 assists, 7.4 steals and 4.4 blocks per game.

+ Colby is 5-7 at home, 6-7 in road games and 1-1 on neutral floors.

Series history vs. Colby

Sunday’s meeting will be the 46th meeting between Hutchinson and Colby in a series that began in 1968. HCC and Colby have been conference rivals since the Trojans joined the league in 1996.

The Blue Dragons own a 41-4 all-time record over the Trojans. The Dragons are 22-1 in games played against Colby at the Sports Arena and 17-3 against the Trojans in the Colby Community Building.

The teams have met twice in Region VI Tournament play with HCC winning both. The last postseason meeting was 2013.

As conference opponents, the Dragons are 33-4. HCC has won the last seven meetings.

HCC Sports Information 

Stunning turnaround has Tigers playing for a conference title

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credit: Cowley College 

Losing 11 of its first 12 games to open the 2014-2015 season, not many would have thought the Cowley College men’s basketball team would be in contention to capture a conference title with only two games remaining to be played in the race for the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division championship.

However, that is exactly where the Tigers find themselves as they prepare to host Allen Community College Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in a game that could decide the conference title.

“This is a phenomenal group of young men, on and off the court,” Cowley head coach Tommy DeSalme said.

Circumstances out of DeSalme’s control led to his being away from his team for nearly a month. As a result of the uncertainty, Cowley had a tough first semester and entered Christmas break with a record of 2-12.

However, the team came back undaunted by the early season struggles and put together a four-game winning streak in the conference and are currently 6-3 in the Jayhawk East following a tough, 80-78 loss at Coffeyville on Wednesday.

The Tigers are in a three-way tie for first place with Coffeyville and Allen heading into Saturday’s home showdown with the Red Devils.

“The biggest change in the second semester is their confidence,” DeSalme said.

Cowley entered the 2014-15 season with only four players that were apart of last year’s squad. The four returning players were reserves as freshmen and did little through the team’s first 14 games

Since returning from Christmas break, sophomores Kaleb Ratliff and Cedric Johnson have stepped up their games dramatically. In the second semester, Ratliff is averaging 6.7 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.3 blocks per game. During that same time span, Johnson is averaging 7.2 points and 3.4 rebounds.

Fellow sophomore Austin Maxwell has also given the Tigers a lift off the bench and has made an astounding 19-of-22 shots from the floor since returning from Christmas Break, including going 7-for-7 with 16 points over the past two games.

“I am so happy for those three guys because they have been through some tough times and stuck it out,” DeSalme said. “They have played like sophomores should play here in the second semester.”

In the first semester the Tigers were led in scoring by freshmen Soufiyane Diakite (10.0 points) and Shyheid Petteway (8.4 points). While, those players are still providing the Tigers with solid minutes, freshmen like Dwight Richards and Terrell Gandy have come on strong in the second semester. Richards, who scored 28 points in Wednesday’s game at Coffeyville, has scored in double figures in eight of his last nine games and is averaging 12.8 points per game in the second semester, while Gandy has scored in double figures in three of his last five games and is averaging 8.0 points over the past 13 games.

Sophomore transfer Tray Wheeler (7.6 points, 2.4 assists) has done a stellar job running the offense and has provided the team with tremendous leadership, while freshman Mason Loewen has been a steady presence and is averaging 9.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists.

Guard Jarvis Cannon (6.2 points) has also provided the team with a lift, while Jamon Fulton, Jordan Burgess, Alexander Garvin, and Clay Morgan have played valuable roles off the bench.

It truly has been a team effort in helping the Tigers go 8-5 overall and 6-3 in the Jayhawk East in the second semester.

“The chemistry of the team is really good,” DeSalme said. “They get along and care for one another, which makes it enjoyable for me.”

A conference title would be the Tigers first since the 2009-2010 season and would go down as one of the greatest turnarounds in the history of the basketball program.

Cowley lost by one-point (75-74) at Allen back on January 14. The Red Devils are led by Courtney Stockard (22.7 points per game) and Josh Sweet (19.0 points per game).

Allen is averaging 80 points per game, while the Tigers average 74 points per contest.

“I expect it to be a fun game,” DeSalme said. “We need an unreal crowd Saturday night because it is a huge game.”

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Georgia Cubes

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cubes3Ask any knowledgeable fisherman why they fish precisely where they do and their explanation will likely include the presence of some sort of underwater structure at their favorite honey holes. Fish are drawn to underwater structure for both security and for the smaller baitfish it also attracts. This structure can be as elaborate and extensive as sunken Christmas trees, underwater trees and brush piles or something as mundane as tree stumps and old building foundations.

Traditionally Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT) biologists have used cut trees to make manmade brush piles, but this year they will begin a new program that uses a new and very different product to create additional fish attracting structures in Kansas lakes.

Developed by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and known as Georgia Cubes, each structure is a square frame made from PVC pipe upon which plastic corrugated drain pipe is fastened. A 3 foot square “cube” is made from 1½ inch PVC pipe. Before the top pipes are put onto the cube, about 16 pounds of gravel is poured into the open pipes, making the cube heavy enough to sink to the bottom of the lake and stay where it’s put. Also before the top framework is added, holes are drilled in pieces of 4 inch plastic, corrugated drain pipe (like you would bury around your house for drainage) and pieces are slipped down over the upright pipes until a total of about fifty feet is added. The plastic drain pipe adds additional surface area to help attract fish, yet keeps the design open which seems to work best. Now the top PVC pipes are put on and the cube is ready to be submerged.

cubes2The PVC cubes are cost-effective, easy to place and last three times longer than traditional tree-limb brush piles. In other states where they are in use, they have also proven to attract and hold just as many fish as manmade brush piles. Bryan Sowards, Fisheries Program Specialist for the state of Kansas says their goal is to produce and deploy 150 – 300 cubes per year. In 2015 Georgia Cubes will be placed in Milford, Wilson, Melvern, El Dorado and Cedar bluff reservoirs as well as in a variety of community and state fishing lakes. Biologists have also found that these structures quickly accumulate a complex mix of algae, fungi and bacteria known as periphyton, which attracts small fish and insects, which in turn attract bigger sport fish.

Members of Kansas B.A.S.S. Nation Clubs will help distribute and deploy the finished cubes. Jeff Nolte, conservation director for the clubs adds that besides attracting and holding sport fish, the cubes also provide critical nursery habitat to help fry evade predator fish as they grow.

Once the cubes are submerged, they will be marked by GPS and added to a file available on the KDWPT website, www.ksoutdoors.com. Click on “fishing” at the top of the page, then click on “where to fish in Kansas” on the left hand side, then click on “Google KMZ file of fish attracters” and follow the directions. To me it all equals a win-win- situation for Kansas fishermen as our Kansas Dept. of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism helps us all Explore Kansas Outdoors!

Steve can be contacted by email at [email protected].

Cougar baseball leave Nebraska with another doubleheader split, pitching staff with twenty strikeouts

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Another day of solid pitching was not enough as the Barton Community College baseball team split another doubleheader to Western Nebraska Community College today in Scottsbluff, Nebraska.  The Cougars easily won 5-1 in game one but five errors proved too costly in the second game as Barton fell 3-2.  Getting a combined twenty-two strikeouts on Friday from the pitching staff, Saturday’s hurlers combined for twenty strikeouts, seven hits, and only one earned run.  The series split takes Barton to 4-3 on the season as Western Nebraska opens up the season at 2-2.  The Cougars’ next action will come next weekend for a three game series at Rose State College.

Spotting WNCC a one run lead in the second, Grant Watkins came through with a two-out bases loaded hit tying the contest.  Four pitches later Jacob Richardson, who had drawn a two-out walk to keep the inning alive, scored on a passed ball giving Barton the lead.  Bryce Minor pushed the lead out to 3-1 coming through with the RBI driving Evan McDonald home from third.

Lance White traveled the bases courtesy of the WNCC defense in the sixth, reaching base and advancing to second on an error.  Dylan Kuhn‘s ground out advanced White to third then two pitches later crossed the plate on a WNCC balk.

With Blaine Hill keeping the WNCC bats silent for only two hits, three walks, and eight strikeouts, Mitch Malherbe maintained the pitching dominance striking out the side in the sixth.

A one-out single by McDonald and a Watkins walk followed by a double-steal set up Minor’s sac fly giving Barton an insurance run to the seventh.  Despite a one-out full-count walk, Malherbe added two more strikeout victims to finish off the host Cougars 5-1.

Watkins led a seven hit attack going 3-for-3 with a double and an RBI.  Minor drove in two runs behind his 2-of-3 from the plate.  Barton had five stolen bases led by McDonald’s two while Watkins, Minor, and Trevor Turner each stole one.

Richardson opened up the second game with a one out single to right field then swiped second three pitches later.  McDonald drove a 2-2 pitch up the middle giving Barton an early one run lead.

Cody Brewer, who would become the hard luck loser in game two, gave up a two-run homerun to Ty Wilson after WNCC’s Joe Moran reached on the first of five Barton errors in the contest.

The Cougar defense committed consecutive errors in the bottom of the second setting up Dionisio Diaz’s left field sac fly increasing the WNCC lead out to 3-1.

Richardson again set up Barton’s next run with a one-out trip to center in the fifth.  Watkins came through for his second two-out RBI on the day with a single to right easily scoring Richardson to cut the deficit to one.

Barton could only muster a Tyler Jennings bunt single in the sixth as the Cougars went quietly in the seventh so split a doubleheader for the third time in four playing dates.

Brewer took his first loss on the season going 5.0 innings giving up only four hits, no walks, and five strikeouts.  Three runs came across the plate during his watch with only one earned as Barton committed four of its five errors in the first four innings.  Jayme Lovelace came in to pitch the last inning giving up only a two out hit and striking out two.

For the second straight game Barton finished with seven hits to outslug the Cougars of WNCC 14-7 on the day.  Richardson was the lone multi-hit performance with a 2-for-4 effort including the fifth inning triple and a stolen base.  Watkins finished 1-for-3 joining Richardson with the lone runs batted in.

New K-State Experimental Grain Sorghum Lines Show High Yield Potential

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MANHATTAN, Kan. – In theory, grain sorghum should yield just as much as corn in Kansas, given the same amount of fertilizer and with substantially less water, according to Kansas State University agronomist Tesfaye Tesso.

In practice, this has not yet happened consistently. New experimental lines in advanced testing at K-State are about to change that, however, said Tesso, who is a sorghum breeder with K-State Research and Extension. These advancements are thanks in large part to funding from the Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission.

“Sorghum has high yield potential, much higher than what we’re getting now. We know that,” Tesso said. “We have been working to find new compatible parental lines that will be able to produce hybrids that can come closer to realizing sorghum’s yield potential. At the same time, we need to make sure any new line has an acceptable maturity range, good standability, drought tolerance, good head exsertion, and other necessary agronomic traits.”

Tesso began developing promising seed parent lines in 2009, right after he became a member of the agronomy faculty at K-State. He and his team, along with Ramasamy Perumal, sorghum breeder at K-State’s Agricultural Research Center-Hays, have been selecting and testing the lines since then.

“There are many challenges to developing seed parent line for release (to seed companies). We have to find out if it will carry over its good traits into a hybrid once it is crossed with a male line. Then we need to find out if it can perform in different Kansas growing environments and in different types of growing seasons,” Tesso explained.

All this becomes a challenge in a breeding program with limited land and equipment resources. For that reason, one of Tesso’s main objectives is to work with private seed companies who are interested in some of his lines. The companies take the lines they like, cross them with their own male lines, and test the resulting hybrids at several locations.

In 2013, hybrids from some of Tesso’s experimental pollinator lines topped the 200-bushel per acre mark on dryland tests in Manhattan, yielding greater than the top commercial check hybrid there and proving that dryland sorghum can achieve yields comparable with that of dryland corn, Tesso said.

In K-State performance tests that year, dryland corn averaged 184 bushels per acre at Manhattan while dryland sorghum averaged 134 bushels per acre. Some of the new experimental hybrids in Tesso’s trials either bested or evened out that yield differential between dryland sorghum and corn.

Tests of the experimental lines in 2014 at Hays confirmed the higher yield potential of the new experimental lines compared with the commercial hybrids used as checks, and much higher than the yield of the highest-yielding dryland corn in Ellis County in the 2014 K-State Corn Performance Tests.

“We think these new experimental lines represent a real breakthrough in the yield potential of grain sorghum in the near future. According to our release policy, we will be offering these new pollinator and seed parent lines to commercial seed companies. Some of our new lines already have been released. If the seed companies are able to produce agronomically acceptable hybrids from these lines, there should be a new generation of higher-yielding grain sorghum hybrids coming to producers in the near future,” Tesso said.

Tesso’s team also has several promising new ALS-resistant lines in advanced stages of development. These lines are resistant to a newly-developed herbicide that inhibits acetolactate synthase (ALS), a plant enzyme.

“We cooperated with a private company to have our new ALS lines tested at one of the company’s test locations in Texas in 2014. This was a test on poor ground, but 22 of the test hybrids using our new ALS-resistant seed parent lines outyielded all of the company’s hybrids in the test by an average of 33 bushels per acre. In addition, in 2013 one of the hybrids from our experimental ALS-resistant pollinator lines yielded more than 200 bushels per acre in Manhattan,” Tesso said.

From these results, Tesso is confident there will be no yield drag in ALS-resistant sorghum hybrids from his program. These experimental seed parent lines will be re-tested in 2015, and will be released to private seed companies if results continue to be good.

All this is very good news for sorghum producers, said Clayton Short, producer from Saline County and chairman of the Kansas Sorghum Commission.

“I’m excited about these new conventional and ALS-resistant experimental lines from the K-State program. This could help increase the acres of grain sorghum in Kansas,” he said.

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