Chavez scores 27 as Garden City takes down Northwest Tech

By Mike Pilosof

Photos by Adam Shrimplin

Garden City, KS-The Broncbusters entered Monday night in desperate need of a win to keep their postseason hopes alive. And they delivered, turning in their best offensive performance in nearly two months.

Tahlik Chavez continued his recent tear, scoring 27 points, Michael Frazier tallied 25 and a season-best nine rebounds, and Garden City rolled past Northwest Tech 90-76 at Conestoga Arena. The win snapped a seven-game losing streak.

"It feels a lot better going to practice, preparing for Pratt coming off a win," Head Coach Patrick Nee said afterwards. "But let's face it, Northwest Tech wasn't a great defensive team. So we got a lot of good looks tonight."

The Broncbusters won by double digits despite going 4-of-19 on 3's (47 percent). They more than made up for it though at the line, nailing 30-of-32 (94 percent) freebies.

"These guys know that these five games are our postseason," Nee said. "That's how they've approached it. We got this one tonight, and now we have four more."

The win didn't officially clinch a postseason berth, but it came pretty close, giving Garden City a two-game lead over the Mavericks for the seventh and final tournament spot out of the Jayhawk West.

"Things haven't gone our way this year, but we still have some time to do something," Nee said. "Let's see what happens now."

The Broncbusters broke open a close game midway through the first half with a 16-0 run. Chavez and Daishaun Woods connected on back-to-back 3's, Steven Samuels and Mason Osborne completed three-point plays, and Garden City led 28-15. They pushed that to as many as 14 after Derrick Bryant drilled an 18-footer from the left side. They were up nine at the intermission.

"I thought our ball pressure was pretty good tonight," Nee added. "We've talked so much about closing out and having active hands. I thought we were very active tonight."

Northwest Tech, who had won two out of their previous three games entering Monday night, including an upset victory over Hutchinson where they stormed back from 18 points down, had no answer for Garden City to start the second half. Chavez hit three free throws after he was fouled shooting a 3; then drilled a pullup from the right slot before splashing home a midrange jumper, giving the Broncbusters a 59-42 lead with 11:47 to play.

"Our defense was pretty good," Nee explained. "We weren't letting them move the ball where they wanted to."

The Mavericks did make a run over the final 10 minutes, cutting the lead to five after Larontae Mormant rattled home a pair of free throws to make it 72-67 with 3:00 to go. But that's as close as Northwest Tech got. Chavez hit four freebies on the other end, Frazier dropped in back-to-back buckets including a line-drive hook in the paint, and Garden City was back up by double digits.

"I thought Michael Frazier was good tonight," Nee said. "Tahlik was super efficient. I mean, what do you say? He's so much better now than he was as the beginning of the year. He understands where he can get his shots and isn't forcing anything."

Chavez was a super efficient, finishing 7-of-10 from the floor and 11-of-11 at the line for Garden City, who won for just the third time since Nov. 27. Daishaun Woods added 11 points and five assists, and Frazier swatted two shots.

Ian Hardy scored 23 for Northwest Tech but was just 8-of-20 from the field. He was one of four Maverick players in double figures.

Next up: Garden City vs. Pratt-Wednesday, Feb. 12-8 p.m. tip on 99.9 FM; westernkansasnews.com/kwkr and KWKR mobile app