Garden City's miracle comeback bid comes up short in Coffeyville

Coffeyville, KS-No. 8 Coffeyville definitely looked the part. 

Sotirios Nafpliotis drilled five 3's, Camian Shell dished out 13 assists, and the Red Ravens held off a furious Garden City rally to win, 87-79 Saturday afternoon at Nellis Hall. The loss dropped the Broncbusters to 4-2 overall and 0-2 in conference play. 

"We let our guard down at the end of the first half," Head Coach, Rusty Elmore said. "We really let them off the hook."

The Red Ravens shot 52 percent from the floor and were 10-of-20 from long range. They also scored 38 points in the paint. 

"You can't mess around with a team like that," Elmore added. 

For much of the first half though, Garden City looked like the better team. They built a nine-point cushion following Buru Naivalurua's layup with 6:20 remaining that made it, 31-22. But the Broncbusters managed just two points the rest of the way and were held scoreless the final 4:33 of the period. Meantime, the Red Ravens countered with a heavy right cross, capping off an 18-2 surge with Amare Haynie's triple that gave the 2021 national champs a 40-33 lead at the intermission. 

"We really collapsed at the end of the first half," Elmore explained. "We've done that twice now."

Coffeyville stretched its lead to as many as 21 in the second half when Shell beat two defenders to the rim to put the Red Ravens ahead, 79-58 with 5:02 left to go. 

"We had a hard time dealing with penetration," Elmore said. "We just didn't play well."

But give Elmore's bunch credit for not going away. Naivalurua's steal and transition slam followed by three Jaborri McGhee 3-pointers pulled Garden City to within nine, 83-74 with 1:21 remaining. Then, McGhee ripped the ball away from Shell in the backcourt before banking in a trey from the top of the key to cut it to six. After a Jordan Wildy missed free throw, the Broncbusters had a chance to make it a one-possession game with less than a minute to go. But McGhee's triple from the left wing grazed the front iron, and Shell sank four free throws on the other end down the stretch to put the game out of reach. 

McGhee finished with 30 points in 33 minutes for Garden City, which dropped its second straight contest. DaJion Humphrey had 19 points on just 7-of-17 shooting, and Naivalurua flirted with a triple double with 11 points, 18 rebounds, and seven assists. 

Nafpliotis scored 17 points for Coffeyville, which improved to 8-0 overall and 2-0 in conference. Wildy finished with 13 points including four thunderous dunks in the second half.