Lady Saints Fall to #16 Odessa in Christmas Classic Opener

Liberal, Kansas – Saturday afternoon started day one of the Seward County Christmas Classic where the Lady Saints women's basketball team matched up with the top ranked team in the tournament in #16 Odessa where the Lady Wranglers handed Seward County their fourth straight loss 87-55 to close out the first of two games on the weekend for SCCC.

Neither team opened the game with a scoring frenzy with both teams scoring a total of twenty points in the first five minutes of action as the Wranglers pushed ahead 14-6 to start the contest. The offensive struggles continued as the Lady Saints could only record one additional point in the quarter as Odessa ended the first ten minutes of action up 19-7.

Naomi Aragonez was able to help provide a spark off the bench for Seward County with a knockdown corner three to cut the deficit down to 28-13 as they attempted to climb back in the second. Alianna Colon found Jamia Carter on the back door cut for an easy two points in the final seconds of the first half to put SCCC at 15 to the Wranglers' 40 to go into the break with a twenty-five-point deficit.

Colon opened the second half with a long-range bomb to add three more points to SCCC's total to bring the score to 46-22 and a fast break layup by Carter past three defenders put the total at 69-37 in favor of the nationally ranked Odessa Wranglers to end the third quarter. The final ten minutes saw more success from the scoring front for the Lady Saints with Kayla Peoples knocking down the ten-foot floater to keep the SCCC scoring alive at 75-39. Carter crossed over the Wranglers defender and sent her to the hospital with broken ankles while sinking in her second three of the afternoon to put Seward County past the fifty-point mark before finally wrapping up day one of the Christmas Classic with an 87-55 loss to the #16 ranked team in the NJCAA.

Carter ended the night with 20 points with Xoe Rosalez scoring an additional 10 for the Lady Saints while Allie Myers scored 9 points to go with a team high of 5 rebounds and 4 steals.

Seward County now falls to 5-6 on the 2023-24 season and will need to turn around quickly for day two of the Christmas Classic tomorrow when they face off against Kilgore at 4:00 PM to end the 2023 calendar year.