Panthers’ rock Dodge City
BY JIM MISUNAS
jmisunas@gbtribune.com
DODGE CITY – Great Bend’s Ian Premer is accustomed to putting up huge numbers. He delivered with a vintage 25-point, career high 20-rebound night that sparked a dominating 63-29 rout of Western Athletic Conference rival Dodge City.
The only thing Dodge City accomplished was stop Premer from his typical display of slam dunks. Premer did finish a powerful shot with a finish against defense by 6-6 Tochi Okoro. Premer scored 12 second-chance points.
“The play I’ll remember was when Ian took 6-6 Tochi with him to the rim,” said Great Bend coach Kyle Kriegh. “That’s impressive.”
Super-sub Ben Nicholson was spectacular with a 10-point effort and a pair of 3-pointers in limited minutes. Like Premer, the only job Nicholson didn’t finish was an attempted slam dunk.
“Ben did a great job,” Kriegh said.
Great Bend broke the game open by holding Dodge City to zero field goals for 13 minutes. The panthers outscored Dodge City 15-1 in the second period and 26-11 in the third quarter.
The Red Demons missed 13 consecutive shots and committed several turnovers when Great Bend stretched a 12-11 lead to 34-15 when Okoro scored at the 3-minute mark of the third period.
It was the best stretch of defense by the Panthers all season. The textbook defense defended the 3-pointer (4 of 20), stopped drives to the basket and dominated the boards outside of a put-back slam dunk by Okoro. One Dodge City dunk to zero by the Panthers was the only statistic the Red Demons won.
“Our guys played great team defense,” Kriegh said. “Parker Dicks did a really good job on Jadin Springer. It was a team effort. When all five guys are on the same page, they play pretty good defense.”
No. 4 Western 5A seed Great Bend (14-5, 5-2 WAC) needs a victory over Hays High Feb. 23 to have a chance of securing home-court in the 5A playoffs. The Panthers also need 5A No. 5 seed Hutchinson High (13-5) to lose to Derby Tuesday.
Great Bend 11 15 26 11 – 63
Dodge City 12 1 11 5 – 29
GREAT BEND (14-5, 5-2)—Premer 12-15 1-4 25, Coombs 3-6 4-4 12, Nicholson 4-5 0-0 10, Spray 2-6 0-0 4, Dicks 2-4 0-0 6, Hall 2-9 0-0 4, Minton 0-1 2,2 2, Kern 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 25-47 7-10 63.
DODGE CITY (7-11, 2-4)—Okoro 4-9 3-4 11, Springer 2-7 0-0 6, Young 0-3 0-0 0, Scheck 0-7 0-0 0, Unzeuta 1-2 0-0 2, Perez 2-8 0-0 6, Gamblin 0-1 2-2 2, Diaz 1-1 0-0 2, Quinones 0-1 0-0 0, Smith 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 10-40 5-6 29.
3-pointers—GB 6-11 (Nicholson 2-2, Coombs 2-4, Dicks 2-4, Spray 0-1); DC 4-20 (Springer 2-5, Perez 2-8, Young 0-3, Scheck 0-4).
