Saints Unable to Slow Down Beavers

PRATT, Kan. – The Seward County men's basketball team couldn't slow down the Jayhawk Conference's number one scoring offense when it mattered, falling to the Pratt Beavers in the final minutes of Wednesday's game, 80-73.

The Saints jumped out of the gate with an 8-2 advantage over the Beavers, but the Pratt offense quickly picked up.  The Beavers went on a 10-2 run to take their first lead of the game, 12-10, but Seward ended the run with an Isiah Small dunk to tie the game. The teams traded points for the remainder of the quarter until Seward finished on a 5-2 run to take a 32-30 lead in the break.

The Beavers came out in the second half and immediately tied the game with an easy layup on their first possession. After trading points for the next couple minutes, Pratt went on an 8-0 run, including back-to-back threes to take a 47-40 lead.  Terrell Alfred ended the run with a three, to cut the lead to four.

Saints hit the bonus at the media timeout and used their free throw advantage to tie game a few minutes later at 60. With under two minutes to play, Pratt took a four-point lead, but a Jamel Horton three from the wing brought the deficit to just one point with 1:41 left to play.

The Pratt offense began picking apart the Saints defense in the final two minutes, getting easy buckets on their next two possessions, forcing Seward to send the Beavers to the foul line.  Pratt wouldn't miss the free throws, going on to win 80-73.

Four Saints scored in double-figures, led by Isiah Small's 17 points.  Horton (15 pts), Anthony Thomas (13 pts) and Alfred (12 pts) joined Small in double-figures.

Seward shot 42.6 percent (23 of 54) from the floor but had one of their worst three-point shooting performances on the season, connecting on just 4 of 18 attempts (22.2%). Pratt showed why they're the top offense in the league, shooting 46.8 percent (29 of 62) from the floor and 47.6 percent (10 of 21) from behind the arc.

The Saints will look to end their two-game skid on Saturday (Feb. 3) at 7:30 p.m. when they travel to Arkansas City to take on the Cowley Tigers. Cowley will live-stream the game and it can be heard on 107.5 KSCB with Brock Kappelmann (pxp) on the call.