No. 13 Lady Saints Take Down Blue Dragons in Hutch

No. 13 Lady Saints Take Down Blue Dragons in Hutch

HUTCHINSON, Kan. – The No. 13 Seward County Lady Saints basketball team came away with a victory over the No. 17 Hutchinson Blue Dragons in the Hutchinson Sports Arena for the first time since 2009, winning 62-49 Wednesday night. Seward broke a three-way tie for first place in the Jayhawk Conference and are still tied with Cowley.

The Lady Saints (16-2, 12-2) knew they were in for a tough match against a hot Blue Dragons team.  The first quarter stayed tight, as neither team could gain momentum, with Seward taking a 14-13 lead after the first quarter.

Hutchinson began the second quarter on a 4-0 run, but the Lady Saints halted any momentum that the Blue Dragons might have had.  Another one-point scoring differential in the second quarter gave the Lady Saints a two-point lead at the break, by a score of 29-27.

Neither team could connect from deep, as Seward shot just 18.2 percent (2 of 11) and Hutchinson shot just 8.3 percent (1 of 12).  However, every other shot seemed to fall with Seward shooting 44.8 percent (13 of 29) from the floor and Hutchinson shooting 40.7 percent (11 of 27).

Three minutes into the third quarter the Blue Dragons took a one-point lead with a three pointer from Tia Bradshaw. Mollie Mounsey answered the three with one of her own on the next possession to start a 10-0 run over the final six minutes of the quarter as the Lady Saints amped up their defensive efforts to hold the Blue Dragons to just six third quarter points.

The Lady Saints continued their run into the fourth quarter, scoring the first two points before Hutch hit a free throw to end the run. Silvia Veloso pushed the lead to a game-high 15 points with just under a minute to play.  The Lady Saints ran the clock down to zero with a 13-point lead, winning 62-49.

Seward County forced 9 turnovers in the second half, all of them coming in form of steals. On the night, the Lady Saints forced 18 turnovers, with 15 of them being steals. The Lady Saints held the Blue Dragons to just 19 percent (4 of 21) from deep and 34.5 percent (19 of 55) from the floor.

Offensively, the Lady Saints shot 42.9 percent (24 of 56) from the floor and 35 percent (7 of 20) from behind the arc. Seward finished making 5 of their final 9 three-point attempts. Mounsey led all scorers with 20 points, scoring 16 of them in the second half.  Silvia Velso (11 pts) and Brennyn Seagler (10 pts) joined Mounsey in double-figures.

The Lady Saints will finish their road-stretch with a trip to Butler to take on the Grizzlies at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday (Jan. 20). Butler will live-stream the game and it can be heard on 107.5 KSCB with Keith Anglemyer (pxp) on the call.