Saints Slay Dragons in Hutchinson

HUTCHINSON, Kan. – For just the seventh time in program history, the No. 15 Seward County men's basketball team defeating the No. 13 Hutchinson Blue Dragons in Hutchinson, winning 87-79.  Seward now has a two-game lead in the Jayhawk West.

The Saints were feeling it offensively early on.  Montrevion Flowers drilled a three on the first possession while going on a 19-4 run to start the game.  After a lackluster defensive effort three days ago, Seward's defense didn't give up a single field goal over the first five minutes of play. Devin Bethely was unconscious during the first ten minutes of play, scoring 12 minutes as the Saints took a 30-14 lead at the media timeout.

Bethely continued to score coming out of the break, helping the Saints maintain their substantial lead. After taking a 19-point lead, the Blue Dragons did all they could to get back into the game before halftime, but a step back three by Flowers before the buzzer kept the lead at 15 by a score of 45-30.

After a brief run by the Blue Dragons, Qaiyoom Olanlege scored on back-to-back possessions to keep the Saints up 15 points, forcing a Hutchinson timeout. Two technicals and an ejection on a Hutchinson player before the media timeout gave Seward three free throws and a 65-49 lead. Moments later, Marco Morency drilled an open three from the corner to make it a 19-point game again. That lead quickly dwindled to 11 points as the Blue Dragons went on an 8-0 run to make it 68-57 with 9:02 to play.

Hutch continued their run coming out of the break, trimming the lead to eight points before Flowers was able to end the run with a triple from the corner to put Seward back up double-digits. Another run by the Blue Dragons made it a seven-point game and forced a Seward timeout. The Blue Dragons continued to get baskets to fall while the Saints began to go on a scoring drought, allowing Hutchinson to cut the lead to just two points.

After two missed free throws by the Blue Dragons, the Saints took advantage with a Devin Bethely jumper, followed by a Flowers steal and Small put back. to make it a six-point game with under six minutes to play. Seward managed to hold off the Blue Dragons, making free throws down the stretch to win the game 87-79.

Seward shot 47.5 percent (28-for-59) from the floor and 40.9 percent (9-for-22) from behind the arc.  Hutchinson shot 51 percent (26-for-51) from the field, but made went just 3-for-11 (27.3%) from deep. There were 72 combined free throws between the two teams with Seward making 73.3 percent (22-for-30) of theirs and Hutchinson shooting 57.1 percent (24-for-42) from the charity stripe.

Devin Bethely led the Saints with 23 points, while Isiah Small and Montrevion Flowers each added 15 points.

Seward will be back in action on Wednesday when they host Garden City at 8:00 p.m. in the Greenhouse. Tickets are available for free thanks to our sponsor Best Western Plus and Flooring America.