by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Link Year Prep’s hot shooting foiled Kansas City Kansas Community College’s home basketball opener Friday with an 89-69 win in the opening round of the annual Keith Lindsey Classic.
The Blue Devils (1-2) will play North Central Missouri today in the final round of the Classic at 6 p.m. KCKCC’s women will also play North Central at 4 p.m.
A basketball academy for high school graduates to prepare promising young players for possible college scholarships, Link Year Prep took just 52 shots Friday, making 32 for a crisp 61.5 percent.
The Lions were particularly effective from long range, netting 8-of-16 from 3-point. The win boosted Link Year Prep’s record to 4-2 including a 40-point win over Neosho County and a 2-point loss to Butler County, both members of the Jayhawk Division I Conference.
The Lions needed the torrid shooting to hold off a late first half Blue Devil rally fired by Jalen Davis, a 6-2 freshman guard from Houston, who almost single handedly pulled KCKCC back in contention.
After three ties and three lead changes, the Lions surged to a 26-11 lead with 7:34 left in the half only to have Davis score the Blue Devils’ next 13 points to cut the halftime deficit to 38-30.
However, the Lions scored the first seven points of the second half for a 45-30 lead and KCKCC could never could close the gap to single digits as the Lions shot 60.7 percent the second half after 62.5 percent the first half.
Dominating the rebounding 38-25, Link Year Prep had three players score 17 or more points – 6-9 Austin Johnson with 20 on 7-of-9 shooting, 6-7 Tre Edwards 18 with 4-of-7 3-pointers and 6-10 Kalin Bennett, 17 on 6-of-7 shooting.
Davis finished with 22 points for KCKCC on 9-of-12 shooting while Andre Boykins and Arother Ratliff came off the bench to add eight points each. Boykins led rebounding with five; Taylor Turner in assists with five.
The Blue Devils shot 43.8 percent from the field thanks to 53.1 percent the second half. The Blue Devils had 14 turnovers while forcing 15 by Link Year Prep.