Preview: Saints Aim to End Skid

LIBERAL, Kan. – The Seward County men's basketball team will look to reverse a losing trend as they travel to Concordia to take on the Cloud County Thunderbirds tomorrow (Nov. 18) at 8 p.m. inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium.

Over the past three seasons, the Saints (4-2,0-2) are just 13-33 in Jayhawk Conference play. They past two games have started out hopeful, but defensive struggles in the second halves have been the difference.

Seward is coming off an 81-67 home loss to Butler. After being down just four points at halftime, the Grizzlies exploded for 53 points in the second half to defeat the Saints by 14.  Ke'Sean Davis led the Saints with 13 points.  Offensively, Seward hit 48% of their shots, but were only 12 of 22 from the charity stripe.

On the season, the Saints are led by Davis (13.8 ppg), Isiah Small (12.7 ppg) and Devin Bethely (11.5 ppg).  Davis, the Salt Lake transfer, has scored over ten points in every game this year. While Davis and Bethely have started every game, Small has been an efficient sixth man, making 73% of the shots he's taken.

Cloud County (3-2, 1-1) is coming off a thrilling overtime upset of No. 1 Hutchinson.  The T-Birds had three players score in double-digits in the game – Solomon Finley (18), Ramion Burt Jr. (16) and Alvin Thompson (15).  While Cloud didn't shoot particularly well (35.1%), they held the Blue Dragons to just 33.3% from the floor.

Burt Jr (16 ppg), Thompson (12.6 ppg) and Finley (12.4 ppg) lead the T-Bird charge, while Shawn Lee stays active on defense with 2.4 steals per game and 1 block per game.

Seward is looking to end a three-game losing streak against Cloud County with their last win coming on Jan. 16, 2016 in a 101-73 victory over the T-Birds in the Greenhouse. Despite their recent struggles, the Saints still hold a 30-15 all-time record over Cloud County.

The game will be live-streamed on Cloud County's Youtube Channel and can be heard on 107.5 KSCB FM as Brock Kappelmann (pxp) is on the call.