Seward Hammered in Worst Home Loss of the Zollinger Era
Looking to bounce back from a season opening home loss at the hands of Northern Oklahoma-Enid on Friday night, the #15 Seward County Saints took the court Saturday against Redlands in the final game of the 2014 Pepsi Classic. Early on the game looked like dejavu of Friday night as Seward raced out to an early lead just to watch it slip away before the half and watch their deficit grow to 20 points by midway through the second half. Unfortunately for Seward, unlike Friday night when a late run got them back into the game, Saturday would have no such run as Redlands throttled the Saints on their home floor 87-58 in Seward's worst home loss of the Bryan Zollinger coaching era.
In front of a good Saturday night home crowd in the Greenhouse, the Saints were sharp early on, scoring the first five points of the game and grabbing an early 15-5 lead on Redlands just five minutes in. The lead didn't last long though as out of a Redlands timeout, the Cougars went on a 7-0 run to cut the Seward lead to just three and before the Saints knew it they were trailing 19-17 with 9:38 to go in the half. A three by Jamal Poplar and a pair of free throws from Darius Polley put the Saints back in front, but after retaking a 24-20 lead, the Saints were outscored 25-5 in the final eight minutes of the half to face a 45-29 deficit at the break. The Saints shot just 26% in the first half while Redlands managed to cash in on 52% of their attempts from the field.
After quick buckets by Kevin Sims and Secean Johnson to open the second half, the Saints cut the Cougar lead down to 11, but in a span of just four minutes, Redlands went on a 13-0 run and just like that the game was blown wide open with the Cougars holding a 58-34 lead. It wouldn't get any prettier from there either as Seward found themselves down 28 at the second half media timeout and never got closer than 19 as Redlands went on to stretch their lead out to 87-58 to finish the game to hand the Saints their largest home loss of the Bryan Zollinger coaching era.
The Saints allowed Redlands to shoot 75% in the second half while hitting on just 29% of their field goal attempts. The Cougars finished the night shooting 61% overall to Seward's 27%. Sims led the Saints with 19 points in the loss while Johnson had 13. The other three Seward starters in the game combined for just 7 points.
#15 Seward falls to 0-2 to start the season and won't see their road get any easier as they travel to Midland, Texas next weekend to take on perennial WJCAC contenders Odessa and Midland on Friday and Saturday.