By JIM MISUNAS
jmisunas@gbtribune.com

DERBY – Great Bend’s basketball team outplayed and outworked the home team from Derby for the whole first half. Great Bend earned the hustle plays and held Derby to 32 percent shooting.
Derby led 20-19 at halftime before outscoring the Panthers 35-24 for a hard-fought 55-43 non-league basketball victory.
Great Bend’s Kody Crosby played one of his best games of the season with a sterling 19-point effort, keyed by inside and outside scoring. Brayden Smith worked hard inside for 10 points.
Great Bend (3-10) entertains No. 7 Class 5A Liberal (10-3) at home Friday.
The No. 6 Class 6A Derby’s boys (10-3) was held to its second lowest output of the season. The Panthers have played 11 of 13 games on the road.
“The only nice thing is we’ve developed good mental toughness,” said Great Bend coach Tim Brooks. “The kids play hard every night. We’ve bonded into a good team on the road.”
But the Panthers had no defensive answer for Derby guard Nyjee Wright, who scored 10 of Derby’s 20 first-half points. He was even better after halftime with nine more points, several steals and timely assists.
“Wright can do everything offensively,” said coach Brooks. “We were worried about his penetration because that’s when he makes his teammates better. But he’s really tough to defend when he’s making 3-pointers.”
Derby misfired from 3-point range until halftime against Great Bend’s zone defense. Derby made two of 15 from 3-point range until adjusting to more inside offense the second half.
“It was one pass and shoot the first half,” said Derby coach Brett Flory. “We worked the ball inside better the second half.”
Derby stormed ahead 30-21 with a 10-2 run to start the second half as four Derby players scored. Crosby was a one-man offensive machine with three consecutive scores to slice the lead to 30-26.
But the Panthers went scoreless into the fourth period when Derby forced turnovers behind intense full-court pressure to fuel a game-breaking 12-0 run for a 42-26 lead. Wright and Grant Adler hit 3-point plays and Brett Bell fed Trevor Gordon to cap the run.
“That run was huge and we did not handle the basketball,” Brooks said. “Our guys handled their pressure fairly well most of the night. It that one stretch where we didn’t handle it. We gave up a 12-point run.”
Crosby earned Flory’s respect while being defended by ninth-grader Grant Adler.
“Crosby does a little bit of everything on offense and gave us all kinds of trouble,” Flory said. “He’s a great shooter who works to the basket. We did a better job after halftime. But he proved he’s a great player tonight.”
Derby finished 7 of 28 from long range to outscore the Panthers 21-6 from long range.

DERBY 55, GREAT BEND 43
GB 8 11 9 17 – 43
Derby 6 14 20 15 – 55
GREAT BEND—Crosby 8-16 2-3 19; Smith 5-10 0-1 10; Woods 1-1 1-1 3; Esfeld 0-1 0-0 0; Ireland 0-5 2-2 2; Perry 0-1 0-0 0; Brack 4-4 0-0 9; Murray 0-4 0-0 0; Totals 18-42 5-7 43.
DERBY—Wright 7-13 1-1 18; Camacho 0-1 0-2 0; Taylor 1-4 0-2 2; Washington 0-1 0-0 0; Adler 3-6 0-0 7; Clavin 3-9 1-2 8; Brown 2-2 0-0 4; Bell 1-3 0-0 2; Gordon 4-12 2-2 11; Karsak 0-1 0-0 0; Dawdy 1-2 0-0 3; Totals 22-54 4-9 55.
3-point goals—GB 2-10 (Brack 1-1, Crosby 1-4, Murray 0-2, Ireland 0-3), Derby 7-28 (Wright 3-7, Adler 1-3, Clavin 1-5, Gordon 1-8, Dawdy 1-2, Karsak 0-1, Taylor 0-2.)