Lady Dragons remain No. 2

LADY DRAGONS STAY AT NO. 2, WILL MEET NO. 4 IOWA WESTERN ON FRIDAY

The Hutchinson Community College women's basketball team remained No. 2 in the latest NJCAA Division I Women's Basketball Poll this week and sets up a Top 5 showdown on Friday.

The second-ranked Lady Dragons (12-0) will take on No. 4 Iowa Western Community College (13-0) in a neutral-court game, which will be played at Mid-America Nazarene's Bell Family Arena in Olathe at 5 p.m. on Friday. The game will be broadcast live on the Blue Dragon Sports Network beginning at 4:45 p.m.

Hutchinson stayed No. 2 this week after a 65-48 victory over No. 25 Northeastern Oklahoma A&M and a 102-32 victory over the Bethany College JV last weekend at the Sports Arena.

Friday's match-up will be only the second regular-season meeting of two Top 10-ranked teams in Lady Dragon basketball history. The first was last year's matchup as Seward County when the Lady Dragons were ranked No. 2 and the Saints were ranked No. 1. The is the first Top 10 matchup since last year's NJCAA Tournament national championship game against No. 1 Trinity Valley.

The current No. 2 ranking matches the highest in team history. The last time the Lady Dragon basketball team was ranked No. 2 was last season, during HCC's 36-1 national runner-up season. Hutchinson spent eight-straight weeks at No. 2 last season.

Before this week, Hutchinson had moved up one spot each week in the first four regular-season polls.

The top 5 teams in the NJCAA poll all - No. 1 North Idaho, No. 2 Hutchinson, No. 3 Northwest Florida State, No. 4 Iowa Western and No. 5 Trinity Valley - remained the same. Garden City, after two big wins in the Hutchinson Clinic Classic, is the only other Jayhawk Conference team ranked in this week's poll at No. 11.

With this week's ranking, Hutchinson has now been ranked in 23-straight polls in which it has been ranked in the Top 10. The Lady Dragons have appeared in 40-straight and 50 of the last 52 polls dating back to 2009.

NJCAA DIVISION I WOMEN'S BASKETBALL POLL

Record Points Last Week

1. North Idaho College (7) 10-0 194 1

2. Hutchinson CC 12-0 189 2

3. Northwest Florida State College 11-0 184 3

4. Iowa Western CC 13-0 171 4

5. Trinity Valley CC 12-1 167 5

6. Shelton State CC (1) 11-0 160 7

7. Georgia Highlands College 12-0 157 6

8. Central Arizona College 9-1 131 9

9. Gulf Coast State College 11-1 129 10

10. Walters State CC 10-1 127 8

11. Garden City CC 14-0 123 11

12. Chipola College 13-1 104 12

13. Gillette College 13-1 103 14

14. Blinn College 12-0 102 13

15. Collin County CC 10-1 81 51

16. Weatherford College 8-2 70 16

16. Southwestern Illinois College 7-1 70 17

18. Mineral Area College 10-1 65 18

19. Redlands CC 10-1 56 21

20. Salt Lake CC 7-2 41 20

21. Gadsden State CC 7-1 33 24

22. Tallahassee CC 10-2 27 NR

23. Moberly Area CC 10-0 26 24

24. Darton State College 10-2 21 23

25. Harford CC 8-1 16 RV

Other schools receiving votes: Northern Oklahoma College-Enid (10-5); Lawson State CC (10-3); Copiah-Lincoln CC (8-1); Howard College (9-1); Wallace State CC (8-3); Lake Region State College (8-2); Volunteer State CC (11-1); Mississippi Gulf Coast CC (8-3); John A. Logan College (7-4).