Sophomore Daleron Thomas had a career night with a season-best 28 points on an efficient 10-17 from the field and knocked down a pair of 3-pointers, but the Hutchinson Community College men’s basketball team came up short against the Independence Pirates, falling 91-89 in overtime Wednesday at the Sports Arena.
The Blue Dragon men dropped their fifth straight contest, falling to 10-11 overall and 5-10 in Jayhawk Conference play. Independence moves to 12-8 overall, and 10-5 in league play.
Independence sweeps Hutchinson in the season series.
Hutchinson will head to Liberal Saturday, January 31st for a 4 p.m. tipoff against Seward County.
Thomas scored the first five points of the night for the Dragons and made a game-tying layup to force overtime with eight seconds left in regulation.
Lolo Rudolph had a career night as well, scoring 18 points on 6-10 shooting from the field and knocking down a 3-pointer. Rudolph also tied a season-high five rebounds.
Bobby Cannon scored 17 points on 4-11 shooting and Anthony Alston had 10 and were the two other Blue Dragons scoring in double figures.
Hutchinson shot 46.9 percent from the field (30 of 64), 36.4 percent from three-point range (8 of 22), and 67.7 percent from the free-throw line (21 of 31).
Independence shot 39.2 percent from the field (31 of 79), 41.7 percent from three-point range (10 of 24), and 82.6 percent from the free-throw line (19-23).
David Wilson led the Pirates with 21 points and Sterling Knox added 20 points, including the game-winner in overtime.
Independence outscored Hutchinson in bench points 35-10.
The Blue Dragons controlled most of the first half. After Independence went up 13-10 with 14:44 remaining in the first, the Dragons went on an 11-0 run to gain a 21-13 lead. After Hutchinson reached its largest lead of 17 with 4:00 remaining in the first half, Independence went on a 5-0 run to cut the Dragons’ halftime lead to 42-30.
In the second half, Hutchinson had a 60-45 advantage with 12:57 remaining in regulation, but Independence went on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to eight.
With 6:14 remaining, Hutchinson’s lead dwindled to 12. From the under-four media timeout, Independence outscored 17-8 to force overtime.
In overtime, the only scorer for Hutchinson was Thomas, scoring all six of the overtime points. After Thomas hitting a pair of free throws to tie the game 89-89 with 10 seconds left in the extra period, Independence’s Knox hit the game-winning jump shot from the short corner with 0.4 seconds left to give Independence the 91-89 win.
Game Notes – Hutchinson is now 57-27 in the all-time series vs. Independence, including 21-6 at the Hutchinson Sports Arena. The Blue Dragons lost their fifth game in a row, the first five-game losing streak since the 1964-1965 season. Dilen Miller played a season-high 26 minutes. Chudier Dorar grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds. Dorar is also the first player since Aaron Franklin to grab 15 rebounds in a game. Anthony Alston had his fifth double-digit scoring game of the season. Bobby Cannon had his 15th double-digit scoring game of the season.
