Broncbusters storm back to take down arch rival on the road

Dodge City, KS-There was nothing pretty about Wednesday night's win. But in the midst of an up-and-down season, interim coach, Isaiah Tisdale will take it.  

Caleb Smith scored 22 points off the bench including the go-ahead floater in the paint with 1:20 remaining, and Garden City erased a 13-point second-half deficit to beat Dodge City, 72-70 at the Student Activity Center.  

Antonio Chol had 16 points and eight rebounds and Boston Harker chipped in 10 points in 31 minutes for Garden City, which won its season high fourth straight game to improve to 11-8 overall and 6-7 in conference play.  

Jayse Boatwright finished with 21 points off the bench for Dodge City, which lost their third straight game and seventh in their last eight to fall to 6-13 overall and 3-10 in the Jayhawk. Mynor Strong added 13.  

This game played out eerily similar to the Nov. 20 matchup in which the Conquistadors built a 22-point second-half advantage before coasting to a 92-76 victory at Conestoga Arena.  In fact, Dodge City flipped the script in the first half, turning an early six-point deficit into a an 11-point advantage following a 21-4 run that ended with a Keshawn Brown layup that gave the home team a 31-20 edge. The Conquistadors led by 11 at the break.  

The Broncbusters continued to reel early in the second half after Strong knocked the ball away from Josiah Sabino, which led to a Payne runout dunk that gave Dodge City their largest lead of the night, 47-34 with 16:50 remaining. 

But Garden City slowly chipped away. Smith's three-point play followed by Harker's layup and two free throws made it an eight-point contest. Moments later, Finn Eriksson swished a line-drive corner 3, Emmanuel Manyuon connected on a 24-foot rainbow, and Smith hit an off-balance triple to pull Garden City within one with 7:43 to go.  

After Dodge City went back up by five, Chol drilled a 3-pointer from the top of the key; then followed up a steal by Josiah Sabino with an emphatic right-handed dunk in transition to tie the game at 64. Once the Conquistadors took a 70-66 lead with 2:22 remaining, Sabino muscled through a pair of defenders for a layup, and Manyuon hit a contested shot in the paint to tie the game at 70 with less than two minutes to go.  

Following a defensive stop and Broncbuster timeout, Smith blew past Boatwright; then challenged Koch-Deng Koch at the rim, finishing over the 6-9 post to give Garden City the lead for good.  

The Conquistadors had a chance to force overtime in the waning seconds but missed a pair of layups in the final 17 seconds. 

Garden City shot 50 percent from the floor including near 60 percent in the second half. They were 7-of-18 from beyond the arc and won the game despite turning the ball over 24 times.  

Dodge City was limited to 3-of-21 from downtown and shot just 37 percent from the floor overall.