Murray’s double-double helps Blue Devils hold off Brown Mackie 73-69 for 5th straight win
by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Thanks to a workmanlike 73-69 win at Brown Mackie Wednesday, Kansas City Kansas Community College can clinch no worse than a tie for its first NJCAA Division in Region VI championship when the Blue Devils host Highland Saturday at 4 p.m.
The Blue Devils moved closer to their first title by holding off a late Brown Mackie rally to improve their Region VI record to 7-1, two games ahead of Highland (5-3) and 2½ ahead of both Fort Scott and Johnson County, both 5-4. The win, the Blue Devils’ fifth in a row, also kept KCKCC at the top of the Jayhawk race at 3-1 followed by Fort Scott (4-2) and Highland (3-2).
Saturday will be Sophomore Day for the Blue Devils and a chance to avenge their only regional loss 70-53 at Highland Jan. 25.
“Our philosophy is to split on the road and win all your games at home,” KCKCC coach Kelley Newton said. “We’re 3-1 on the road for which I’m very proud and now we have to take care of things at home.”
Jon Murray led the Blue Devils at Brown Mackie, scoring 24 points and grabbing 10 rebounds including game-clinching goals and rebounds in the closing seconds.
“We knew Murray was good,” Brown Mackie coach Bryson Flax said. “You’ve got to respect what he does. He’s efficient and rebounds well. I thought we’d do a little better job of not letting him catch the ball as easily as he did.”
A 6-9 sophomore from Macon, Mo., Murray had 18 points in the first half in a dual with Brown Mackie’s Tez Ivory, who had 16 of his game high 30 points in the first half.
“Jon was a big key in the first half,” Newton said. “He was very big in us leading 48-47.”
KCKCC also got big performances from Kellen Turner and Mike Lee. Tuner added 17 points including 4-of-8 3-pointers while Lee directed the offense with nine assists and just one turnover along with eight points and three rebounds.
KCKCC built its biggest lead at 68-58 with 6:39 remaining only to have the Lions make big late runs. The first came after Brown Mackie had closed to 68-67 with 1:53 to go. KCKCC sophomore Garrick McCuller responded, converting a 3-point play for a 71-67 edge. It was McCuller’s fourth field goal of the game without a miss.
Ivory got the Lions back to within two with 1:15 left but Donald Metoyer grabbed a huge offensive rebound with 45 seconds left and Murray followed 20 seconds later with a short jumper that pushed the lead to the final 73-69. The Larks twice missed 3-pointers in the closing seconds before Murray corralled the rebound that closed out his double-double.
“They hit the shots that you have to hit to win on the road,” Brown Mackie’s Flax said. “We got dominated in the paint, especially early, and they made some late plays. It deflated us a little bit.” One of the biggest plays came with 12:56 when on an in-bound play with one second left on the clock, Lane Hartley drilled a 3-pointer for a 62-53 KCKCC lead.”
Brown Mackie shot 55 percent from the field in scoring 47 points in the first half but managed only 22 points in the second half.
“We cut out some of their fast breaks and did a better job of limiting them to one shot in the second half although we got outrebounded 34-23,” Newton said. “But we also got some key scores. It was a good win because any road win is always important.”