Following the women’s matchup, the men were set to play at the Colby Event Center hosting the Hutchinson Blue Dragons. Both teams are floating near the middle of the conference with Hutchinson sitting on a 13-7 record, while Colby holds an 11-9 record. Both teams played hard and looked to be equally matched, but after two halves, Hutchinson was able to do just enough to outshine Colby at home winning the game 65-63.
Hutchinson took the lead in the first half, but only by four points as both teams utilized a seven man rotation with everyone finding a bucket. Hutchinson’s offense was being carried by Mikhail Abdul-Hamid, he put up 14 points in the half with nine coming from the three-point line and the remainder coming from the free-throw line.
Colby was moving the ball well at the same time with the team hitting 5 three-pointers, and controlling most of the half. However, Hutchinson fought back and tied the game up at 29 points each. Colby then made a couple mistakes in the closing minutes that allowed Hutchinson to pull ahead 33-29 at halftime.
The second half became a back and forth match with several ties and lead exchanges before being tied once again at 60 points with two minutes left. Then Hutchinson made an errant play fouling Maxence Massadila in the process of shooting a three-pointer. Massadila made all three free-throws putting Colby ahead by three, 60-63.
Then some late game heroics unfolded from Hutchinson’s Dimitrius Dudley, he hit a slick drive to get into a midrange shot striking the bottom of the net to put Hutchinson down one point. Hutchinson was able to get a stop on the next possession, giving their offense an opportunity to steal the lead. Dudley found himself nailing a three-pointer to give Hutchinson the two-point advantage 65-63.
Colby lost its composure while looking to take the last shot, but the defense was good. Colby ended up running too much clock off and couldn’t get set up into a good shot, leading to the shot clock expiring, giving away the game. Hutchinson stole away an exciting game from Colby at home, 65-63.
Colby’s leading scorers were Eternity Eguagie with 13 points, D.J. Cason with 10 points, and Khadir Muhammad with 9 points. Next Colby will be hosting Garden City on Feb. 1 at the Colby Event Center.
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