Buffs’ boys drub Dodge to sweep series

Story Credit: GCHS Athletics

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For one of the few times this basketball season, the Garden City Buffaloes’ boys’ team played 32 minutes without so much as a lull in the way they executed on both offense and defense.

The result on Tuesday night in The Garden was a resounding 76-48 victory over arch-rival Dodge City that completes a regular-season sweep after the Buffs had won in Dodge two weeks prior, 73-63.

“Everybody played well and our defense did a good job,” head Coach Luke Swedberg said afterward. “I think we made it tough on their scorers because they’ve got some really good shooters.”

It was a near ideal offensive output for the Buffs as they had six players score in double figures. The leader of that group was senior Jalen Jagels with 15 points. Senior Daniel Monarrez was right behind with 14, junior Drew Strecker followed with 13, sophomore Kobe Rosales added 11 and junior Jayvyn Morales rounded it out with 10.

“That’s cool and when you share the ball that much, it’s fun,” Swedberg said. “I think our defense got a lot of steals and we made transition baskets and got some easy ones.”

Swedberg said it was probably the most complete game of the season for the Buffs.

“You want to be playing your best basketball at the end of February, early March, so this is a positive step forward,” Swedberg said. “I thought we were patient when we needed to be and we were able to find some great shots. We slowed down at the right times.”

Dodge City’s 1-2 punch of Ty Scheck and Cru Lembright led the Demons with 16 and 13 points, respectively.

“We did a good job of making it tough on them, and didn’t let the others hurt us,” Swedberg said of his team’s defense. I thought we did a much better job rebounding in the second half.”

Early on, the battle was as close and intense as it usually is between the rivals. The Buffs led 17-15 after one quarter. Midway through the second period the Buffs led just 27-26 but finished the quarter on a mini 9-2 run to take a 36-28 advantage to the locker room.

After scoring five quick points to begin the third quarter and take a 41-28 lead, Dodge City rallied back with a 7-0 run to make it 41-35 with just five minutes left in the stanza. From there, the Buffs rolled, scoring 20 points while limiting the Demons to just five that put them up 61-40 heading to the final eight minutes.

“I thought we did a great job of getting some separation and then not letting them get back in the game,” Swedberg said.

The closest the Demons would come was 17, 64-47, but the Buffs rattled off another 9-0 run to win going away.

More impressively, the victory came without junior Mackoy Hemmert and freshman Brayden Walter, who were out with injuries. Hemmert had scored 33 points against the Demons when they first met on Feb. 3.

The Buffs improved to 10-10 overall and evened their Western Athletic Conference record to 3-3. They will have a quick turnaround and travel to Hays on Thursday to face the Indians in a game moved up a day due to a Class 5A regional wrestling tournament at Hays High that starts on Friday.

It was back on Jan. 16 that the Indians throttled the Buffs, 55-34, in Garden City. Hays leads the WAC with a 5-0 record and is 15-4 overall. The Buffs will play their final home regular season game on Feb. 24 against Liberal and then close out the regular season at Wichita Southeast on Feb. 27. That game was added after the Buffs had to miss playing their third game of the Valley Center January Jam.

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Western Athletic Conference
Game # 6
GARDEN CITY 76, DODGE CITY 48
Dodge City (48) — Lembright 4 2-4 13, Ochs 1 0-0 2, Scheck 5 5-7 16, Woods 1 0-0 2, Garcia 1 0-0 3, Schulte 1 0-0 3, Smith 4 0-0 8, Okoro 0 1-2 1. Totals 17 8-12 48.
Garden City (76) — Rosales 5 0-0 11, Morales 4 0-0 10, Chairez 1 0-0 2, Monarrez 5 2-6 14, Longa 0 1-2 1, B. Jagels 5 0-0 11, J. Jagels 6 3-4 15, Strecker 4 4-4 13. Totals 30 10-16 76.

Dodge City (10-9/1-3)…15…13…12…8…–…48
Garden City (9-10/2-3)…17…19…25…15…–…76

3-point goals—Dodge City 6 (Lembright 3, Scheck 1, Garcia 1, Schulte 1); Garden City 7 (Rosales 1, Morales 2, Monarrez 2, B. Jagels 1, Strecker 1).Fouls—Dodge City: 12; Garden City: 13. Fouled out–None.