KCKCC Men's Basketball Edge Out Hesston In A 56-54 Victory
Wednesday's game against the Larks of Hesston College gave the Blue Devils an opportunity to right their first outing against Hesston in early January. Both halves proved to be exciting with KCKCC out- scoring the Larks 27-26 in the first half and then 29-28 in the second half. The Blue Devils are currently on a 4 game winning streak headed into Saturday's matchup against Brown Mackie. Brown Mackie is 1 game ahead of the Blue Devils in the Region standings.
"This was a hard fought game on both sides. Big time defense in the second half and a clutch shot by Babajide Aina propelled us to our 56-54 victory," said head coach Kelley Newton. Babajide led the Blue Devils with 12 points and 10 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. Austin Hall had big minutes coming off the bench and scoring 12 points and grabbing 7 boards. Joe Lendway also had 11 points and 7 boards while Ray Ridley added 11 points and 5 assists.
The Blue Devils defense proved to be an issue for the Larks. Coming into Wednesday's matchup the Larks were averaging 74 points a game were held to 54 points, 20 points below their average. "Team defense has been the key to our success in our 4 game win streak. In order to keep it going our team defensive focus has to remain consistent and we must have a total team effort," said Newton.
The Blue Devils are on the road for their next two games against Region opponents, Brown Mackie on Saturday, February 14th at 3:00 and Wednesday, February 18th at 7:00 at Highland. They will be back home again on Saturday, February 21st at 4:00 against conference opponent Allen County.