Garden City erases 10-point deficit; beats Northwest Tech

By Mike Pilosof

Goodland, KS-Interim Head Coach Mike "Scoop" Harding already has his signature phrase for this season: "It wasn't pretty, but we'll take it."

There was nothing aesthetically pleasing about the Broncbusters performance on Saturday. But who cares. They won, and they did so by overcoming a sluggish first half.

Deborah Ford bounced back from subpar showing vs. Hutchinson to score a season-high 20 points, Jaleah Bellany finished with 15, and Garden City erased a 10-point second-half deficit to beat Northwest Tech 74-65 at Max Jones Field House.

"I just told them at half time to keep grinding it out," Harding said. "They were into it tonight. They were up celebrating on the bench, so it was a good night."

The Broncbusters improved to 5-0 lifetime vs. Northwest Tech and won for the second time in their last four games.

"Deb's energy on the block tonight was unreal," Harding said. "There are not many people who can guard her when she plays with that much energy."

The Broncbusters put the game away with a fantastic fourth quarter. But the first three periods saw more hit and miss than anything else. The Mavericks led by as many as six in the opening stanza and were up two going to the second. Then they hit Garden City with a 7-0 run that Josie Cook capped off with an and-1 layup, putting Northwest Tech up 29-22 with 6:45 remaining. They pushed that to eight less than a minute later on Courtnie West's second-chance bucket.

"This was just a really good grind-out win for us," Harding explained.

Ford kept the Broncbusters within striking distance, completing a three-point play with 39 seconds to go until the break. But Yverline Da Silva got free for a wide-open layup, and Northwest Tech was up 40-33 at the intermission. And as a side note, Garden City entered the night 0-8 when trailing at the half.

"It was just at totally different energy level in the second half," Harding said.

After a back-and-forth third quarter, Garden City erupted in the final frame. The Broncbusters scored 25 points on 8-of-12 shooting (75 percent) over the final 10 minutes. Bellany hit a pair of triples to begin the period, and Alyssa Boyce drained a trey from the left corner, giving the Broncbusters their first lead since the first quarter, 60-59. Then, with the game still teetering, Ford hit back-to-back shots from the post before Boyce connected on a midrange jumper to put Garden City up six, 71-65 with 25 seconds to play.

"We just have to keep getting better," Harding said. "We need to get better on Monday and bring more energy. That's what we have to do each game."

Ford finished 9-of-16 from the field and pulled down four rebounds for Garden City. Boyce had 12 on 4-of-12 shooting, and Dashanae Pajeadu added seven points and seven boards.

Lauryn Vieira led Northwest Tech with 13 points but missed 10 of her 15 shots. And a big reason for that was Donetria McGee, who told Harding that she wanted the assignment. The move worked, and the blazing-fast point guard scored just seven points over the final 20 minutes.

Next up: Garden City vs. Butler-Monday, Jan. 20-4:45 p.m. pregame; 5 p.m. tip on 99.9 FM; westernkansasnews.com/kwkr and KWKR mobile app

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