FRANKLIN DOUBLE-DOUBLE POWERS DRAGONS PAST SEWARD

Aaron Franklin has a double-double with 25 points and a career-high 18 rebounds to lead the Blue Dragon men to an 86-75 KJCCC win over Seward County on Saturday at the Sports Arena. (Billy Watson/Blue Dragon Sports Information)

January 7, 2023

Hutchinson CC Sports Information

Redshirt freshman Aaron Franklin posted his fifth double-double of the season, which included a career-high 18 rebounds, to pace the Hutchinson Community College men's basketball team to its fourth-straight victory of the season on Saturday at the Sports Arena.

Franklin had his 13th game this season scoring 20 or more points in the Blue Dragons' 86-75 Jayhawk Conference victory over Seward County.

The Blue Dragons improved to 12-5 overall and 6-5 in the Jayhawk Conference with their seventh-consecutive victory over the Saints. Hutchinson has its first conference bye of the season on Wednesday and returns to action next Saturday at Garden City in a 4 p.m. tipoff at Conestoga Arena. Seward County dropped to 9-8 overall and 5-6 in the league.

Franklin had a game-high 25 points on 10 of 20 shooting. He had his third game of five or more 3-pointers, going 5 of 10 from the arc. Franklin's 18 rebounds tied Ed Manuel (1984) and DeShawn Freeman (2015) for the seventh-most rebounds in Blue Dragon single-game history.

Hutchinson led 37-32 at halftime and had a game-high 17-point lead after a Steele Gaston-Chapman 3-pointer gave the Dragons a 54-37 lead with 13:29 to play in the second half. Trailing by 14 points, the Saints made it a one-possession game with an 11-0 run over a span of 1 minute, 10 seconds. Jaden Martin's second-straight dunk after a Hutchinson turnover cut the Dragon lead to 61-58 with 9:15 to play.

The Blue Dragons immediately responded with a 15-1 run over the next 4:10 reclaim control of the game. Five different Hutchinson players scored in that burst. Aaron's Potter's layup with 5:05 to play in the second half gave the Blue Dragons a 76-59 lead.

Only three players scored in double figures for the Dragons, but seven different Hutchinson players scored at least eight points against Seward County.

Potter scored 9 of his 12 points in the second half for Hutchinson. Potter added five rebounds and three assists. Kernan Bundy had 11 points and season-high-tying seven rebounds.

Jayden Garrison hit a pair of 3-pointers and finished with nine points and seven rebounds. Re'Sean Frederick, Kieran Carr and Gaston-Chapman all had eight points for the Blue Dragons.

Hutchinson shot 34.2 percent (26 of 76) for the game, going 11 of 40 from 3-point range and 23 of 34 from the free-throw line. The Dragons out-rebounded Seward County 57-48, pulling down 24 offensive rebounds which led to a 29-12 advantage in second-chance points.

The Blue Dragons held Seward County to an opponent season-low 33.8 percent field-goal shooting. The Saints were 4 of 21 from 3-point range and 21 of 28 from the free-throw line. Seward committed 23 turnovers.

Jaylin Henderson had 19 points while Marion Whitley and Wilson Dubinsky had 10 points each.

Both teams shot less than 30 percent in the first half – the Dragons were 9 of 31 and the Saints were 10 of 34 from the field in the opening 20 minutes.

Tied at 15-all, the Dragons had a 9-2 run that was ignited by a Garrison 3-pointer and capped by two Justin Shorts' free throws for a 24-17 lead with 8:34 to play in the opening half. Henderson's layup with 6:32 remaining cut the Hutchinson lead to 24-23. Potter made 1 of 2 free throws with 5:42 left in the half for a 29-23 lead, but Seward's Whitley made four-straight free throws to cut the Dragon lead to 29-27 with 4:19 to play in the half.

Franklin connected on his fourth 3-pointer of the opening half to help the Dragons build a 36-29 lead with 1:54 to go in the half. Whitley hit a buzzer-beater for Seward to cut the Hutchinson lead to 37-32 at halftime.

The Blue Dragons opened the second half on a 16-7 run to build a 56-39 lead after a Franklin free-throw with 13:09 remaining in the period. Hutchinson scored just five points over the next 5 minutes, 33 seconds as Seward County took advantage of six Hutchinson turnovers in that stretch and cut the lead to 61-58 with a 19-3 run.

The Dragons scored the next eight points and finished off a 16-3 run on a Franklin layup, Gaston-Chapman 3-pointer and Potter layup to build a 76-59 lead with 5:05 remaining in the game. The Saints got the deficit down to 11 points five different times after that, but never got the game back into single digits again.

GAME NOTES – This was all-time Blue Dragon win No. 1,886. … The Blue Dragons are now 83-31 all-time against Seward County, including 49-6 at the Sports Arena. … With 11 3-pointers, this was Hutchinson's 24th game of 10 or more 3-pointers in the Tommy DeSalme era. … with 24 offensive rebounds, the Blue Dragons have five-straight games of 20-plus offensive boards and it was the 13th time this season Hutchinson has reached 20-plus offensive boards.