By ALAN HOSKINS
It’s been 16 years since Kansas City Kansas Community College has won a game at Coffeyville which made the Blue Devils’ two losses there Wednesday night as painful as any suffered all season.
Coffeyville’s Tonisha Wilson drilled a three-point field goal as time expired for a 67-64 win in the women’s game while the No. 4 ranked Red Ravens came from 17 points back to escape 71-65 in the men’s game.
In the midst of a four-game road streak, both teams dropped to 7-13 heading into games at Cowley College Saturday night and Hesston Monday night before returning home Wednesday to host Johnson County at 5 and 7 p.m.
With six seconds left, the Lady Blue Devils got a dramatic game-tying three-point basket from Alexandria Blaurock to pull into a 64-64 tie only to have Wilson drive the length of the floor to put up a game-winning 25-footer that just beat the buzzer.
“We really played hard, we really did,” said KCKCC Coach Valerie Stambersky, who has never won at Coffeyville in her 14 years. “We were down six or seven with less than a minute and a half to go but executed and got a couple of free throws from Latosha Ware and Ali’s three-pointer to get it even. Unfortunately, it was not enough to win.”
Four Blue Devils scored in double figures. Blaurock led with 14 points while Nage Umutlu added 12 and Paris Johnson and Samantha Hurst 10 each. Ware led rebounding with 12 while Hurst had four assists and Umutlu and Brittany Clement three each.
The Blue Devil men gave Coffeyville’s men their biggest scare of the Jayhawk season, taking an 11-0 lead in the first seven minutes and building it to 32-15 before a 14-3 Red Raven run cut the Blue Devil lead to 35-29 at halftime. Another 44-20 Coffeyville surge pushed the Ravens’ lead to 59-52 only to have the Blue Devils fight back to tie it on a pair of Evan Burns’ three-pointers with six minutes to go.
“Turnovers and offensive rebounds killed us the final minutes,” said KCKCC Coach Jon Oler, whose Blue Devils gave up 23 offensive rebounds and committed a season high 27 turnovers. “It really hurt that Evrard (6-10 Evard Atcho) got in foul trouble and only played 15 minutes. We really tried hard, got great production off the bench and Evan (Burns) hit two big threes to tie it. But they’re awfully athletic and obviously very good.”
The win was the 14th in a row for the Red Ravens (20-1) and kept them unbeaten in the Jayhawk (9-0) in pursuit of an 11th conference title or co-title in the last 13 years.
D.J. Booker had 16 points and Jordan Banks 15 to lead a well-balanced attach that included nine points each from Burns and Dominique Washington and seven apiece from Antonio Winn and Josh Rupprecht. Atcho and Washington had eight rebounds each for the Blue Devils, who were outrebounded 40-28.
KCKCC had its best shooting night of the season, hitting 11 of 18 first half shots (61.1 percent) and finishing at .548 for the game. Banks was a perfect 5-for-5 including two treys and Burns 3-of-4, all from distance.
