Battered and bruised, Garden City falls at Hutch

Hutchinson, KS-In an eight-point loss to Barton 10 days ago, Rusty Elmore watched helplessly as his star point guard was battered, bruised, and harassed with constant double teams and traps, an ultimate sign of respect. 

On Saturday night, Hutchinson deployed the same defensive strategy, and it worked to perfection.  

The Blue Dragons limited Brody Robinson to a season-low five points and held him without a field goal in 33 frustrating minutes, Kamryn Thomas poured in a team-high 22, and Hutchinson beat Garden City, 85-64 at the Sports Arena.  

The Broncbusters (11-7, 7-5), which shot 16-of-27 from deep vs. Dodge City on Wednesday, finished 6-of-26 on Saturday and shot just 36 percent from the floor.  They also were held to their third lowest point total of the season and surrendered 14 offensive rebounds.  

Kernan Bundy chipped in 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting for the Blue Dragons, which won for the fifth time in their last six games to improve to 15-3 overall and 10-2 in conference. It also marked their second straight 20-point victory over the Broncbusters in the Sports Arena after battering Elmore's bunch, 80-60 back on March 1, 2023.  

And this game played out eerily similar. 

Bundy stole the ball from Jordan Frazier, then fed Edwin Daniel for a transition dunk, bringing the crowd to its feet, and putting Hutchinson up, 13-3 six minutes into the contest. A few minutes later, Bundy drilled a 3-pointer from the wing before beating Elijah Roberts to the rim for a deuce, JoJo Adeoye grabbed Bundy's missed layup and tipped it home, and Dallas Whitney rattled home a wide-open triple to make it 28-12.  

Hutchinson stretched the lead to 20 with less than three minutes to play in the half when Thomas connected from deep to give the Blue Dragons a 41-21 advantage. After Garden City trimmed the deficit to 13, Valentino Simon swished a 17-foot jumper followed by Kobe Smith's made layup that came off a pair of offensive rebounds, giving Hutchinson a 47-30 cushion going into the locker room.  

As for Robinson, the second half didn't get much better. And following a drive where the sophomore was bumped going to the basket before losing the ball out of bounds, Robinson slowly walked to the bench, punching the air in frustration. He finished 0-of-3 from the field. 

Meantime, the Blue Dragons built its lead to as many as 30 after Bundy canned a 3-pointer to make it 74-44 with 7:27 remaining. 

Following his first-career triple double on Wednesday, Braxton Jones finished with 23 points for Garden City. Thomas Tut scored with 13 points and pulled down seven boards. 

Whitney scored 14 points off the bench for Hutchinson, and Smith added 10.