by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Turnovers are never good but they’re especially hurtful on the road as Kansas City Kansas Community College found out the hard way Wednesday night.
Johnson County converted 20 Blue Devil turnovers into 29 points on the way to an 87-52 win in the opening game of the Jayhawk Conference-Region VI Division race Wednesday night.
JCCC improved to 9-12 with the win while KCKCC fell to 7-14 heading into the Blue Devils’ conference home opener Saturday against Hesston. Women open the twin bill at 2 p.m. with the men to follow at 4 p.m.
KCKCC led 7-5 just three minutes into the game only to have the Cavaliers score the next 12 points for a 17-7 lead and the Blue Devils could never catch up. Closest KCKCC got was 20-13 before the Cavaliers surged to a 37-19 halftime lead.
Not only did the Cavaliers capitalize on the Blue Devil turnovers, they shot the ball with accuracy, won the rebounding battle 34-25 by giving up just seven offensive rebounds and blocked seven shots.
Shooting better than 50 percent each half, JCCC finished at 51.8 percent from the field and a torrid 12-of-25 (.480) from 3-point. Berlin Roberson led four Cavaliers in double figures with 19 points including a sizzling 5-of-8 treys.
Three Blue Devils, Juwan Davenport, Solomon Thomas and Sterling Hicks, shared KCKCC scoring honors with nine points each while DuVonte Beard added seven. Beard also led in rebounding with five and Davenport in assists with four. The Blue Devils converted just 7-of-28 shots for 25 percent the first half before 12-of-25 for 48 percent the second half lifted them to 35.8 percent for the game.
The two other conference openers went to the wire, Highland winning at Labette 74-70 and Fort Scott escaping at Hesston 68-66.