Hutchinson CC Sports Information
Freshman Majok Kuath's career night was overshadowed by Malik Hardmon as the surging Allen Red Devils knocked off the No. 5-ranked Blue Dragons 87-80 Saturday night at the Sports Arena in both teams' return from a 24-day holiday break.
The Blue Dragons drop a game at the Sports Arena for the first time in eight games this season. Allen extends its conference-best winning streak to 10 games and snaps an eight-game Arena losing streak to the Blue Dragons. Allen's last win at the Sports Arena was 2008, a 72-70 victory.
Hutchinson drops to 12-2 overall and 4-2 in the Jayhawk West. Allen improves to 11-4 overall and took sole possession of first place in the Jayhawk East at 6-0 after No. 13 Cowley was upset at Colby on Saturday night.
Entering play on Saturday, Hutchinson had sole possession of first place in the Jayhawk West while Allen was tied with Cowley for the Jayhawk East lead.
Making his first career start, Kuath posted his first Blue Dragon double-double with career highs of 29 points and 15 rebounds. Kuath was 11 of 18 shooting overall and 7 of 9 from the free-throw line.
Hardmon was tough to stop Saturday night, scoring an individual opponent high this season against Hutchinson with 39 points on 16 of 20 shooting, including two 3-pointers and 5 of 7 from the line.
Kuath scored 14 points in the first half as Hutchinson shot 57.1 percent, but only managed a 46-43 lead at halftime. Hardmon scored 17 first-half points and the Red Devils got a huge momentum boost from Tyus Jeffries' half-court bomb at the buzzer to cut Hutch's lead in half.
The Blue Dragons lost a halftime lead for the second time this season – the other was December 7 in a loss at Butler. After sizzling in the first half offensively, the Blue Dragons cooled off to the tune of 33.3 percent overall shooting (12 of 36), going just 1 of 12 from 3-point range in the final 20 minutes.
The Dragons led 72-71 with 4:52 to play after a Saquan Singleton free throw. The game's 20th and final lead change came 1:22 later as Hardmon scored and completed a three-point play with 3:30 left for a 74-72 Red Devil lead. Allen went on to outscore Hutchinson 16-9 down the stretch and 44-34 overall in the second half.
Two other Blue Dragons scored in double figures. Sophomore D.J. Mitchell finished with 18 points and five rebounds. Singleton had 14 points, four rebounds and three assists. Tyler Brown and Josh Baker finished with seven points each.
Hutchinson ended up shooting 28 of 64 (43.8 percent) for the game. The Dragons were 6 of 21 from 3-point range and 18 of 24 from the free-throw line. The Dragons were narrowly out-rebounded 43-33. Hutch had 17 turnovers.
Jeffries finished with 18 points for Allen. Trez Hankins added 14. Jeffries and Hankins combined for six of Allen's nine 3-pointers in the game.
Allen became the first time this season to shoot 50 percent against the Blue Dragons, going 31 of 62 overall. The Red Devils were 9 of 23 from 3-point range and 16 of 22 from the free-throw line.
This was Allen's largest margin of victory in series history over the Blue Dragons.
The Blue Dragons will play their final non-conference game of the season on Wednesday when the Kansas City Blue Devils come to the Sports Arena for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.