Broncbusters roll No. 25 Coffeyville

By Mike Pilosof

Photo by Adam Shrimplin

Garden City, KS-Antwain Scales' team is gaining some serious momentum.  

Kealani Neves tallied her third double-figure scoring game of the season with 15 points on 6-off-11 shooting, Donetria McGee added 11, and Garden City improved to 4-0 with their first statement win of 2021: a 58-46 shellacking of No. 25 Coffeyville Saturday afternoon at Conestoga Arena. It's the Broncbusters best start since 2012.

Garden City trailed for all of four minutes in the game, which promptly ended when Neves nailed a 3-pointer to things up at five. The sophomore guard followed with another triple, McGee sliced into the paint for a short jumper, and Neves knocked down a midrange bucket, polishing off a 10-0 surge that had the Broncbusters up, 12-5. They led by five after one; then stretched their lead to double digits four minutes into the second on a Desiree Smith made layup and a Jersey Mayfield trey that put them up 13. They pushed that to as high as 15 when Garden City native Keyhana Turner swished a baseline jumper. The Broncbusters led by 10 at the intermission.

"There are a lot of things that we could have done better," Scales said afterwards. "Bottomline though, these young ladies figured out a way to get it done."

That comfortable cushion was made possible by a supercharged defensive effort, one that saw the Broncbusters score 22 points off 22 Red Raven turnovers. And they punished Coffeyville in the third, holding the Red Ravens to 3-of-13 from the field. Meantime, Neves hit another 3-pointer, Ashton McCorry banked in a driving layup, and Garden City closed the period on an 8-0 run to open a 45-27 advantage. They build that to as many as 20 early in the fourth on Alexis Smith's 17-foot jumper.

McGee finished 7-of-8 from the free-throw line for the Broncbusters, which have won their last three games by an average of 19 points. They shot 43 percent from the field (21-of-49) and outrebounded Coffeyville, 27-25.

Faith Simpson scored 18 for the Red Ravens, which suffered their first loss of the season.

Next up: Garden City at Trinidad State-Monday, Nov. 22-6 p.m.