Tut's 28 leads Garden City past Sterling

Garden City, KS-Braxton Jones and Thomas Tut combined for 54 points, Bol Kuir added nine points, eight rebounds, and three blocks in 16 minutes off the bench, and Garden City beat Sterling College, 96-55 Thursday night at Conestoga Arena. 

"We moved the ball a little bit, so that was a plus," Head Coach, Rusty Elmore said. "But I thought, in the first half, we were just going through the motions." 

This was far from a perfect performance, especially considering Garden City shot just 36 percent from the field in the opening period. But Elmore's squad came out with more energy over the final 20 minutes, finishing 20-of-32 (63 percent) from the floor in the second half and 6-of-13 from 3.  

"I thought we gave a better effort," Elmore explained. "Thomas Tut was really good tonight. The last two games weren't his best, and if we are going to win, he and Brody (Robinson) have to be good."

Tut's thunderous dunk two minutes into the game put Garden City ahead 8-0. He added another poster with less than seven minutes remaining after Sterling cut the lead to two. In all, the sophomore finished with 26 points on 9-of-10 from the field and 8-of-9 from the line in 29 efficient minutes. 

"Hopefully he (Tut) can build up on this, and get back in and get back to work," Elmore said.  

The Broncbusters never trailed in the game, although the Warriors kept things tight early when Gavin Dobbins' 3-pointer from the top of the key tied things up at 10. But Garden City managed to pull away after that, and with their lead trimmed to two, Elmore's squad responded with a 20-8 run to end the half highlighted by freshman Jace Steinmetz's steal and transition dunk that made it 37-23 at the break.  

"It was all about being aggressive from the jump," Tut said afterwards. "The last two games have been really tough, but every player and every team goes through those types of ups and downs." 

There weren't many downs on this night for the former Saint Peter's Peacock.  

His twisting layup early in the second half gave the Broncbusters a 16-point edge. He added a flashy three-point play moments later and a couple of free throws, which was all part of a stretch where the sophomore scored nine straight points to begin the final period putting Garden City up 49-31 with 16 minutes to go.  

"My teammates put me in a really good position tonight," Tut said. "We made a ton of winning plays."

After some offensive struggles in the first half, Garden City outscored Sterling 59-32 in the second, building their lead to as many as 46 after Jones slipped a pass to Carter Davis for a right-handed layup to make it 96-50 with 1:43 remaining.  

Garden City, which improved to 2-2 on the season, shot 49 percent from the field and 11-of-29 from downtown. They produced 28 assists on their 33 made baskets and outrebounded the Warriors, 41-17. 

Dobbins scored 18 points for Sterling, which dropped to 2-2 overall. Camden Carr scored 10 points but was just 2-of-8 from the field.