by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
The name may be different but the competitiveness between Kansas City, Kansas, and Metropolitan community colleges has not changed.
For more than 30 years, Penn Valley and KCKCC have staged some memorable shootouts and Saturday’s renewal of the rivalry was no exception until Metropolitan broke a late tie and pulled away for an 87-80 win.
Metropolitan improved to 7-9 with the win while the Blue Devils fell to 5-12 heading into their final big non-conference week of the season.
At North Central Missouri Monday, the Blue Devils are home to Saint Mary junior varsity Thursday at 7 p.m. and Park University junior varsity Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Trailing by as many as 17 points with eight minutes left in the half, the Blue Devils staged a furious comeback capped by Calvin Slaughter’s rebound basket that forged a 69-69 deadlock with 5:24 to go.
Slaughter, Arother Ratliff, Taylor Turner and Kelyn Bolton fired the big comeback. Each scored nine points in the second half in erasing a 44-35 halftime deficit.
However, the Blue Devils couldn’t keep 6-1 sophomore guard Matt Austin off the free throw line in the final minutes.
Austin sandwiched seven free throws around a Dominic Fragola 3-pointer to open a 79-71 lead with 2½ minutes remaining and the Blue Devils couldn’t catch up. Austin finished with 31 points including 9-of-16 field goals and 9-of-10 free throws.
Five Blue Devils scored in double figures as they accounted for all but nine KCKCC points. Bolton, who was 8-of-10 from the field, led with 18 points while Slaughter added 17, Ratliff 14, Taylor Turner 12 and Daiyon Taylor 10.
Slaughter and Ratliff each had seven rebounds as the Blue Devils limited the Wolves to just four offensive rebounds and won the rebounding battle 37-28. Taylor Turner led in assists with four.
Both teams shot right at 50 percent from the field although at markedly different times. The Wolves were 19-of-34 for 55.9 percent in building their 44-35 halftime lead while the Blue Devils shot 60 percent (18-of-30) in their big second half rally. Free throws and turnovers hurt the Blue Devils.
Metropolitan made 14-of-18 foul shots to 8-of-16 for KCKCC. The Wolves, who were guilty of just 11 turnovers, converted KCKCC’s 22 lost balls into 32 points.
