Garden City buries Coffeyville for fourth straight win

Coffeyville, KS-Six seconds or less is turning into a major problem for opponents. 

Thomas Tut poured in a season-high 31 points, Brody Robinson added 29 points and 10 masterful assists, and Garden City ran Coffeyville out of its own gym, 106-92 Saturday night at Nellis Hall. It was the brown and gold's first win on Herkelman Court since Jan. 14, 2022. 

Jordan Frazier finished with 15 points on 4-of-9 shooting, and Braxton Jones tallied 13 in 33 minutes as the Broncbusters won their fourth straight game to improve to 10-5 overall and 6-3 in conference. They're now tied with Cloud County for fourth place in the Jayhawk standings. 

"This is a great team win," Head Coach, Rusty Elmore said afterwards. "This is one of the toughest places in the conference to get a win."

Elmore knows that firsthand as Saturday was his first career victory vs. Hall-of-Fame coach, Jay Herkelman. 

"Our guys have really bought in to what we are doing," Elmore added. "I told them that if we play like that, it's really fun to watch."

Garden City matched a season-low with only four turnovers and outscored the Red Ravens, 50-40 in the paint. They also scored 100 points or more in back-to-back games for the first time since Jan. 26 and Jan. 28, 2022, when they posted 106 and 112 respectively vs. Independence and Colby.  

And this was high-level basketball at its finest.  

Tut swished a pair of free throws, Jones hit a stop-and-pop 16-footer, and Seydou Tamboura found Robinson for a gorgeous reverse layup on a backdoor cut, igniting a 13-5 Broncbuster run that put Elmore's team up, 30-22 with 8:56 to play in the first half. 

After Coffeyville responded with a 10-2 surge to knot the game at 32, Elijah Roberts banked home a twisting double-clutch jumper in the paint; then knocked down two free throws, Robinson setup Tut for a 12-foot push shot, and Garden City had its biggest lead of the opening period, 48-38 with 2:13 to go.  

But in a game played at such a frenetic pace, the double-digit lead dissipated quickly. The Broncbusters failed to score the rest of the way as Coffeyville closed the half on a 9-0 run capped by a Jones' turnover that led to an Alvin Cole layup in the final seconds that cut the Garden City lead to 48-47 at the intermission.  

"There were some moments in the first half where I felt like we could have pulled away," Elmore said. 

They didn't let that opportunity slip away after the break.  

Over the final 20 minutes, Garden City outscored Coffeyville, 58-45 and buried 20-of-their-final 40 shots from the field. And after trailing by as many as three early in the second half, Garden City buried the Red Ravens with an up-tempo attack that even had Herkelman perplexed.  

Robinson found Jones for a right-wing 3-pointer; then zipped a beautiful no-look pass to Tulsa transfer, Charles Chukwu for a two-handed flush. Jones followed with another long ball, and Tut converted an acrobatic tip-in off Robinson's missed triple attempt to give the visitors a 13-point edge. The Saint Peters' transfer then rattled home a straight-on 3-pointer before converting a spectacular three-point play where he curled along the left baseline before finishing a wraparound layup over Jahni Summers to give Garden City its largest lead of the day, 90-72 with 5:36 remaining.  

"Thomas was an absolute beast today," Elmore said. "He was physical and dominated in every aspect."

Roberts scored eight points off the bench for Garden City, which finished 24-of-26 from the line and outrebounded Coffeyville, 35-33. Chukwu added nine points, seven rebounds, and two blocks despite being limited to only 24 minutes because of foul trouble. 

Summers and Chris Carroll each scored 27 points for Coffeyville, which fell to 7-7 overall and 3-5 in league. Griffith had 18 points off the bench, and Cole finished a game-high 11 assists.