One half of Dodge City High School’s dynamic basketball guard duo remains in Trey Hallman, who’s showing why he’s the top player in the Western Athletic Conference.
Rico Hogan, the WAC Player of the Year last year for the Red Demons, the defending conference champions, transferred to Norman, Okla.
On Friday night, Hallman scored 11 of his 17 points in the first half and swingman Isaiah Bradshaw was a wildcard for the Demons, scoring 15 points, as Dodge romped to a 63-37 win over the Panthers on Homecoming at Panther Fieldhouse.
Dodge City (4-3 overall, 2-0 WAC) withstood a torrid opening quarter by Great Bend and outscored the Panthers 11-3 in the second to seize a 30-17 halftime lead. Despite a third-quarter scoring barrage by Great Bend’s Jace Bowman, who finished with a career-high 17 points, the Red Demons were able to pull away in a big way.
“They’re well-coached and play extremely hard,” Great Bend head coach Chris Battin said. “Coach (Dennis) Hamilton does a great job with them, and we kind of threw a big-time punch at them in the first quarter and they methodically came back on us.
“We didn’t do a very good job of defending Hallman and he did a great job of getting in the lane.”
Bowman had five points, including his first of two 3-pointers, and Ethan Henderson added four points as the Panthers were able to stay in contention, down 19-14 after one quarter — despite Hallman’s twisting, acrobatic drives to the basket.
After Great Bend managed just three points in the second quarter in falling behind by 13, Bowman tried to bring the Panthers back, scoring 10 points during the final two minutes, 40 seconds of the third period. He hit a jump shot, a 3, a pair of free throws, a dribble-drive pull-up jumper and converted 1 of 2 at the line during his sizz.
“My shot felt good, so I tried to get to the basket,” Bowman said. “But we just need to get more stops than we did on defense. It was frustrating.”
Still, after Bowman’s flurry, GBHS trailed 48-33 after three quarters.
Bowman missed the Panthers’ first six games, recovering from meniscus surgery from a football season knee injury. But the 6-foot-3 inside-outside threat has scored 41 points in the three games since his return to emerge as the team’s top scorer.
“I feel like I’m getting better, but I still have a lot of work to do,” Bowman said.
The bottom fell out for the Panthers in the fourth quarter as they managed only four points.
“We’ve got to keep improving and have some guys step up,” Battin said. “We have got to avoid some bad combinations we had one the floor, at times, and that’s mostly because of foul trouble.”
The Demons seem to be hitting their stride after coming into the game with a .500 record, having lost to Wichita East, Goddard Eisenhower and Ulysses.

HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL
Western Athletic Conference
At Great Bend
Panther Fieldhouse

BOYS

Friday

Dodge City 63, Great Bend 37
DODGE CITY (4-3, 2-0)
     Isaiah Bradshaw 6 1-1 15, Rashaan Taylor 0 0-0 0, Jonathan Taylor 3 0-1 6, Trey Hallman 8 0-3 17, Stephan Gross 1 0-0 3, Austin Weiser 0 0-0 0, Adley Davi 2 0-0 5, Jordan Doan 2 0-0 5, Todd Middleton 0 0-0 0, Kelan Newton 0 1-2 1, Jace Larson 3 0-0 6, Matt Goedeken 3 0-0 6. Totals 28 2-7 63.
GREAT BEND (2-7, 1-2)
     Connor Sell 2 0-1 4, Mauricio Uribe 0 0-0 0, Matt Marshall 0 0-0 0, Jace Bowman 6 3-5 17, Chad Touslee 1 0-1 2, Brock Ibarra 0 0-0 0, Bryce Beck 0 1-2 1, Ethan Henderson 2 0-0 4, Blaise Cain 1 0-0 3, Wyatt Bayless 1 4-6 6. Totals 13 8-15 37.
Great Bend                   14   3   16   4   —  37
Dodge City                   19  11  18  15  —  63
    Three-point goals — Dodge City 6 (Bradshaw 2, Hallman, Gross, Davis, Doan); Great Bend 3 (Bowman 2, Cain).