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By ALAN HOSKINS, Kansan Contributor

If there are break through games for Kansas City Kansas Community College basketball teams this season, you may need to go no farther than the Blue Devils’ impressive sweep of Neosho County at Chanute Saturday night.

Avenging an earlier 64-59 home loss, the Blue Devil men pulled themselves within a half-game of a first division playoff berth with an 88-66 cruise while the Lady Blue Devils were staging their biggest comeback of the season with a 79-75 victory.

The sweep sets up what could be a big stretch drive for both teams, who are home for four of their final six Jayhawk twin bills starting Wednesday against powerful Coffeyville (5 and 7 p.m.).

At 8-1, the Coffeyville men lead the Jayhawk East over Cowley County (7-3), Neosho (6-3), Allen County (5-3), KCKCC (5-4) and Independence (4-4).

The Blue Devils got big performances out of all five starters as they built their overall record to 18-6 with their third win in the last four starts. Derick Denny led the scoring with 22 points including six three-pointers while Scott Fruehling had 18 points on a career high six treys and Andre Metoyer was 9-of10 in an 18-point effort that also included six rebounds.

Dennis Tinnon led the rebounding with 16 and added 13 points, his seventh double double in his last eight games, while Melvin Gatson dished out nine assists and scored nine points.

Despite shooting just 38.5 percent and making only 7 of 22 three-pointers in the first half, KCKCC still led 37-29 before a blistering 51-point second half highlight by 59.4 percent shooting form the field and 8 of 14 three-pointers (.571). The Blue Devils also had a season low six turnovers and led rebounding 46-38.

Four of KCKCC’s six Jayhawk East losses have come after the Lady Blue Devils had led at halftime but this time, it was the Blue Devils who roared from behind, wiping out a 47-37 deficit with 57.7 percent second half shooting to improve to 3-6 in the conference and 13-10 overall heading into a makeup game at Saint Mary tonight.

Melanie Phipps (pictured), a 6-0 freshman from Mount Pleasant, Iowa, led the way with far and away her best performance as she scored 25 points on 11-of-13 shooting from the field, grabbed four rebounds and had two steals.

Alyssa Rushton added 14 points and Shannon Carlin and Laci Schreiber 10 each. Schreiber also had 10 rebounds for a double double while Sarah Craft had nine points and seven rebounds.

KCKCC fell behind 47-37 despite shooting 50 percent but then limited Neosho to just 9 of 31 seconds half shots (.290) and no three-pointers in eight attempts.