Hutch Set to Play For National Championship
For the second time in three seasons, the Hutchinson Community College women's basketball team will have the opportunity to play for a national championship. The No. 3-ranked Lady Dragons (35-0) will play two-time defending national champion Trinity Valley (35-1) at 7 p.m. on Saturday in the 2014 NJCAA Women's Division I National Tournament Championship Game at Salina's Bicentennial Center. The game will be videostreamed live by NJCAATV.com. The Blue Dragon Sports Network will provide an audio-only stream and live stats. The game will also be broadcast live on Blue Dragon flagship station KHUT-FM (102.9) beginning at 6:45 p.m. Saturday's title bout is a rematch of the 2012 NJCAA championship game won by Trinity Valley 69-55. The Cardinals buried HCC with 3-point shooting in the first half, but the Lady Dragons brought it back to a seven-point game before ultimately falling by 14 in their first title game appearance. Hutchinson, now riding a school-record-tying 36-game winning streak, earned its title game berth with a 78-71 victory over No. 2 Chipola on Friday night. Role players Sydney Benoit and Chelsea Dewey played huge minutes to back Kalani Purcell's third-straight tournament double-double and 19 points from a foul-plagued leading scorer, Jamie Patrick. Trinity Valley, the nation's leading defensive team, mauled No. 5 Central Arizona 82-63 in its semifinal matchup on Friday. The Cardinals, whose only loss is to Chipola, has won their three tournament games by an average of 26.3 points per game. Hutchinson is in search of its first women's basketball title. TVCC has eight titles. - See more at: http://www.bluedragonsports.com/news/101442#sthash.tXHEsrDX.dpuf