Garden City smokes Seward County behind Hunter's 23

By Mike Pilosof

Photo by Adam Shrimplin

Garden City, KS-In the three days leading up to Wednesday night's game, Bill Morosco barricaded himself in his office. After three straight losses, something he experienced only once at Independence, something was off, and the first-year coach was determined to rectify it.

72 hours later, his team, the same one that started 7-0 for the first time in 16 years, appeared rejuvenated.

Tone Hunter and Heru Bligen combined for 44 points on 16-of-29 shooting (55 percent), Jyre McCloud added 16 points and six boards, and Garden City pounded Seward County, 96-83 at Conestoga Arena. The Broncbusters improved to 8-3 overall and 2-3 in conference play.

After a subpar shooting performance vs. Dodge City on Saturday, Garden City found their stroke, hitting 35-of-72 from the field (49 percent) with nine triples. They also annihilated the visitors on the glass 54-34 and scored 44 points in the paint.

The Saints though were the aggressors early in this one. Taye Donald nailed a 3, Jaylin Henderson beat McCloud off the bounce, and Erik Pratt laid the ball in softly off the glass, fueling a 9-0 run that gave Seward County its largest lead of the night, 19-11 with 12:07 to go in the first half.

The Broncbusters took it from there.

June Lewis answered with a triple, Hunter knocked down an elbow jumper, and McCloud ripped through two defenders for a layup. That was followed by Hunter's floater in the paint, McCloud's emphatic jam, and Micah Octave's corner 3, putting a bow on a 20-point turnaround thanks to a 31-11 surge that had Garden City up 40-28 with 2:21 remaining in the period. They led by eight going into the locker room.

Garden City never cooled off.

Octave dropped a perfect dime to McCloud, who elevated for an and-1 dunk three minutes into the second half. Marko Dosen followed with a 3-pointer from the wing, Bligen used a beautiful inside-out dribble to cut across the lane for 2, and Hunter knocked down a 24-footer to put the home team up, 68-52 with 10:43 to go. They pushed that to as many as 25 after Bligen's layup made it 82-57.

Hunter finished with 23 points on 9-of-17 shooting in 32 minutes for Garden City, which avenged last year's 31-point loss to the Saints at Conestoga. Bligen scored 21, Dosen finished with 12, and Octave totaled six points and 10 boards in 24 minutes off the bench.

Donald tallied 15 points for Seward County, which dropped its third straight game.

Next up: Garden City vs. NW Tech-Saturday, Dec. 11-4 p.m. CDT