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No. 9 Coffeyville flexes defensive muscle
Coming off a 116-50 rout of Labette Wednesday night, ninth-ranked Coffeyville apparently looked to see what it could do defensively when it came to Arnold Arena to face Fort Scott Community College's men in Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division play Saturday afternoon.
What the division-leading Red Ravens did was hold the Greyhounds to one of their lowest point totals since the end of World War II.
Coffeyville took a 69-30 victory. It's the fewest points FSCC has scored since the shot clock was made a part of the game. The previous worst was 37 points in a loss to Garden City at the Jayhawk Conference Shootout in Coffeyville in November 2007.
It gets worse. The 30 points ties for the second-fewest in any game played by FSCC since 1945. The only lower point total on record is 23 points against Joplin Junior College on January 4, 1946. FSCC also scored just 30 points in a February 1950 game against Independence.
The Red Ravens (9-1, 20-2) jumped out to an 11-1 lead after six minutes.
"I thought we got out of sync the first half with our temp of the game," Fort Scott head coach Michael Cook said. "We tried to run with them too much."
One of just two times Fort Scott (1-9, 2-19) scored consecutively all day came late in the first half. Julian Mills scored a layup with 5:05 to go to cut the deficit to 28-14. Menas Stephens hit one of two free throws over a minute later.
The Greyhounds' effort was still strong in the first half. They held Coffeyville without a score for about four minutes late and allowed only one field goal in the final 5:43 of the half. But Fort Scott couldn't catch up and still trailed 33-17 at the half.
The frustration continued in the second half. The Ravens had a 10-plus minute stretch where they outscored the 'Hounds 20-2 to build the lead to 58-23 with 7:15 remaining.
Teance Walton scored Fort Scott's last 3 points within 20 seconds. He made a basket with 2:36 to go and one of two free throws with 2:16 left. This was the other time FSCC scored consecutively in the game.
The Greyhounds shot 25 percent from the floor, making 11 of 44 field-goal attempts. They were 1 of 15 from behind the 3-point line.
"We didn't execute offensively the way we should have," Cook said. "And when shots don't fall, sometimes a young team gets frustrated and then doesn't play defense. We didn't give it the effort we should have in the second half."
Coffeyville shot 40 percent on 23 of 58 and also connected on 10 of 28 threes. They scored about 21 points less than their season average (90.5 points per game) and shot about 8 points under their season percentage (48.0).
Dawon Cummings led Coffeyvile with 17 points while Eriq Harris added 13. They combined to make 12 of 23 field-goal tries.
No one reached double figures for the Greyhounds. Mills and Stephens each had 9 points and only three other players scored.
"(Coffeyville's) score ended up where we thought it would be," Cook said. "We didn't want to let them get into the 80's or 90's. But we didn't hit shots. We missed some easy shots and missed some layups. We're not executing offensively right now."
Fort Scott committed 25 turnovers to Coffeyville's 14 and was outrebounded, 39-33. Stephens and Alex Barner had 9 rebounds each for the Greyhounds.
The Greyhounds will have to play another ranked team Wednesday. This time it will be a road contest against Johnson County, No. 9 in Division II. The Cavaliers handed the Greyhounds a 72-53 setback at Arnold Arena on Dec. 5.
When the 'Hounds watch the game film of this one, Cook hopes his team will see what he saw.
"We'll see our margin for error is zero," Cook said. "When we see film, we'll see that we have to set better screens. We have to realize we didn't play team ball tonight. We had one pass then shot a three. We're a defensive team. And we didn't play great defense in the first half but we were still within striking distance. But we didn't score in the second half."
Wednesday's game tips off at 7:30 p.m. in Overland Park.
NOTES -- Once it's evident who the victor is going to be, coaches have ways to keep the team going.
"You have to give them goals," Cook says. "Let's get four (defensive) stops and convert. Let's have a goal of no offensive rebounds. Let's push the ball and see if we can score in transition. Just little goals in the process of the game -- a game within the game, basically."...
This was the seventh time this season Fort Scott scored fewer than 50 points....
Coffeyville was allowing 67.6 points per game coming in, which was fourth in the conference. In their last two games, the Ravens have allowed 80 total points. They were also leading the conference in scoring margin, winning by an average of 22.9 points per game....
Coffeyville's 69 points is almost exactly what FSCC has been allowing this year (69.3, which is ninth in the conference)....
COFFEYVILLE: Wilson 2-8 3-3 7, Broussard 3-8 0-1 8, Cuyler 0-2 1-4 1, Watson 1-5 1-2 4, Crockett 1-3 4-4 7, Cummings 6-11 0-0 17, Cordray 0-1 0-0 0, Hill 0-0 0-0 0, Chaney 1-3 0-0 3, Harris 6-12 1-1 13, Henshall 1-1 1-1 3, Bowin 0-0 2-2 2, Davenport 0-1 0-0 0, Stevens 2-3 0-0 4. TOTALS: 23-58 13-18 69
FORT SCOTT: Mason 2-7 0-0 4, King 0-2 0-0 0, Stephens 3-8 3-4 9, Mills 4-8 1-2 9, Carter 0-2 0-0 0, Barner 1-5 0-0 3, Trost 0-0 0-0 0, Hurtt 0-1 0-0 0, Hayes 0-3 0-0 0, Walton 1-4 3-6 5, Flowers 0-4 0-0 0. TOTALS: 11-44 7-12 30.
Halftime: Coffeyville, 33-17.
Three-point field goals: Coffeyville 10-28 (Cummings 5-9, Broussard 2-7, Crockett 1-2, Chaney 1-2, Watson 1-3, Cordray 0-1, Harris 0-1, Wilson 0-3), Fort Scott 1-15 (Barner 1-5, Stephens 0-1, Mills 0-1, Flowers 0-1, King 0-2, Mason 0-5).
Total fouls: Coffeyville 16, Fort Scott 14. Fouled out: None. Technical fouls: None.
Rebounds: Coffeyville 39 (Wilson 7, Stevens 7), Fort Scott 33 (Stephens 9, Barner 9). Assists: Coffeyville 9 (Watson 3), Fort Scott 2 (Stephens, Mills). Turnovers: Coffeyville 14, Fort Scott 25. Steals: Coffeyville 12 (Crockett 3, Cummings 3), Fort Scott 5 (Walton 2). Blocked shots: Coffeyville 4 (Stevens 4), Fort Scott none.