IT'S GAMEDAY IN THE GREENHOUSE: Seward County vs. Barton Basketball

GAME PREVIEW:For the second time this season, the Seward County Lady Saints and the Barton Lady Cougars meet on the hardwood tonight in Jayhawk Conference action. It's Homecoming night in the Greenhouse tonight with festivities taking place immediately following tonight's contest.At one point in time during the series between Seward County and Barton, it was all Lady Cougars, with the gals from Great Bend winning 23 in a row from 1981 to 1993. However, Seward has had the upper hand since the turn of the century and has tightened the all-time series back to a 46-38 Barton advantage after winning 11 of the past 14 overall and 7 of the past 8 here in the Greenhouse.These two teams hooked up three weeks ago in a Saturday matinee affair in the Kirkman Center in Great Bend with the Lady Saints putting together a solid effort against the Lady Cougars in a 67-52 win. Seward held Barton to just 29% shooting in the game and forced 19 Lady Cougar turnovers. Axelle Bernard led the Lady Saints offensively with 14 points while hauling in a season high 17 rebounds in the victory.Seward comes into tonight off of their signature victory of 2016, knocking off #7 Hutchinson here in the Greenhouse on Wednesday 68-63. In the win, the Lady Saints held the high powered Dragons without a single point for over seven minutes in the fourth quarter and held Hutch to just six total fourth quarter points to come from behind for the win. The Lady Saints give themselves some life once again in the race at the top of the conference standings where they now sit 5th, just one game back of Coffeyville and Cowley for the 3rd spot. Axelle Bernard posted another double-double for Seward Wednesday with 10 points and 12 rebounds and is now averaging a double-double on the season at 10.7 points and 10.3 rebounds per game.After a slow start to Jayhawk Conference play, the Lady Cougars of Barton have picked up some steam down the stretch. Barton comes in to tonight winners of 3 of their past 5 includ-ing wins over Coffeyville and Dodge City in February. The Lady Cougars thrive on their de-fensive pressure and turnover margin that both rank 2nd in the conference. Barton forces their opponents into 22.3 turnovers per game while only giving it up 14.5 times per night.

GAME PREVIEW:Expect for there to be some heat in the Greenhouse tonight as old Jayhawk West rivals Seward County and Barton hook up here in Liberal. The Saints and Cougars are separated by just one game in the standings after both have experienced recent slides. Seward has lost three straight coming into tonight and are now in 7th place in the league standings at 7-7 while Barton has lost two in a row to fall out of contention for the league title as they are now 9-7 and in 5th place.Barton has the second most wins of any team all-time against Seward, holding a 57-39 advantage in the series. However, very little of that success for the Cougars has come here in Liberal lately where the Saints have won 5 of the past 6 over Barton. Overall the Saints have won 11 of the past 15 against Barton.For the second straight time they have squared off against each other, the Saints and Cougars January matchup in Great Bend got a little heated late in the second half. It was a roller coaster game for both sides as Seward burst out of the gates to an early lead and looked like they had the game in hand, up 17 before the half, but the Cougars closed the lead to eight at the break and tied the score later in the second half. Niem Stevenson took over late for Seward, leading the Saints to a 79-77 victory in the end to send Cougar nation home disappointed.Seward comes into tonight a wounded animal after losing their last two games in the final three seconds of regulation. Wednesday the Saints led a red hot Hutchinson team by nine at the half, just to see the Dragons score 52 second half points to come from behind for a 87-85 last second victory. In the loss, the Saints got another big time performance from Niem Stevenson who went for 35 points and 12 rebounds, marking his fourth 30 point, 10 rebound game of the season. Stevenson leads all Jayhawk scorers at 24.4 points per game.Barton looked like the team to beat in the Jayhawk Conference early on after a 6-1 start, but the Cougars have gone just 3-6 since then to fall back to the middle of the pack. The Cougars are battle tested though, playing four straight one possession games coming into tonight and like Seward, Barton has been beaten nearly at the buzzer in each of their last two contests after winning the two before that at the horn.