McCorry flirts with triple double in Garden City's opening-night victory

By Mike Pilosof

Enid, OK-Antwain Scales easily aged about 30 years during Friday's regular-season opener. In the end though, his team prevailed, thanks to some veteran leadership down the stretch.

Donetria McGee recorded a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds, Pittsburg State transfer Asthon McCorry chipped in 15 points, eight boards, and six assists, and Garden City held off Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa, 65-61 in two overtimes at the Mabee Center. It was the Broncbusters second straight opening-night victory.

Garden City won the game despite missing all 13 of their 3-point attempts. They edged the Mavericks on the glass, 44-43, and outscored Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa 34-18 in the paint. But free throw shooting nearly cost them as the brown and gold finished 15-of-31 from the stripe (48 percent).

The Broncbusters won this contest with their defense. They forced 32 turnovers including McGee's late theft of Travisha Cogdell, which resulted in a transition layup, putting Garden City up 63-59 in the closing seconds of the second overtime. Moments later, Dayshawna Carter salted the game away with two free throws, giving Scales his 192^nd career victory.

Garden City managed a three-point halftime lead despite missing 20 of their first 31 shots from the field. They stretched that to five early in the third when McCorry slipped a pass to Alexis Smith, who maneuvered to the cup for two. But the Mavericks answered right back, and Lexie Boyer's 3-pointer and Jordan Holman's free throw put Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa up, 33-32. Shelby Rayner followed with a line-drive jumper from the top of the key, Holman hit another midrange shot, and the Mavericks closed the period on a 14-8 run to take a 41-35 advantage into the fourth.  

Trailing by three with less than four minutes to play, McCorry followed her own miss with a layup, Justis Odom buried a shot in the paint, and Garden City was up 50-49 with 1:35 on the clock. But the Broncbusters failed to score the rest of the way giving the Mavericks a chance to win it at the end of regulation before Holman's 3-pointer fell a foot short.

Neither team mustered much of anything in the first extra session, combining to go 0-of-9 from the field. Then, with Garden City down three in the second OT, McGee got free for a layup before hitting 1-of-2 at the line, and Carter finished off a three-point play to put the Broncbusters up for good, 61-59 with 21 seconds left.

Carter scored 11 points and had four steals in 23 minutes off the bench for Garden City, which scored 15 points off Maverick giveaways.

Holman paced Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa with 18 points but was just 6-of-17 from the field. Rayner had 14, and Delaney Reimer added 10.

Next up: Garden City vs. NOC-Enid-Saturday, Nov. 13 at 3 p.m.