Saints Hang On For Close Road Win At Colby

No road win is an easy road in the Jayhawk West and the Seward County Saints found that out once again Wednesday night in the Community Building in Colby, eeking out a 85-82 thriller against the Trojans for their eighth straight win on the season. 

 

The pace was solid early on as the two teams went back and forth in a key early season matchup for both.  Niem Stevenson stepped up for the Saints early on, scoring seven points in the first three minutes of action to give Seward a 9-5 lead.  The game remained with that score for nearly three minutes until finally Colby was able to add to their point total with a three pointer to cut the Saints lead to 9-8 with 13:28 left in the half.  With the game tied at 11 later on, Quentin Purtue drained a three for the Saints to give them a three point advantage and the Seward lead stretched to five with 11:24 to go in the half as Secean Johnson hammered a putback home to make it 18-13.  Seward remained up by five midway through the half and extended their lead to its biggest of the night at 24-16 as Malcolm Hill-Bey found Brian Bridgeforth on the inside for a deuce with 8:24 remaining in the period.  However, the homestanding Trojans kept on clawing and behind a raucous home crowd, Colby went on an 11-3 run over the next four minutes to come all the way back and tie the game at 27.  The teams traded buckets into the half and the game remained deadlocked at the break at 37 apiece. 

 

 The stats at the break were nearly identical.  Leading the way for Seward was Stevenson with 11 points while Johnson chipped in 9 first half tallies. 

 

After Colby jumped out to the lead early in the second, an old fashioned three point play by Stevenson gave the Saints the lead back 46-45 with 17:02 to go.  Colby stormed back to take a four point lead of their own and after a three from Hill-Bey, the Trojans scored four more consecutive points to take their largest lead of the game at 55-50 with 12:08 left.  It was a nip and tuck battle through the middle of the second half and minutes later, a drive and score from Hill-Bey tied the game up once again, this time at 66 with 6:54 remaining. The Saints grabbed a 74-71 lead as the clock ticked under 4:00 to go and this time, they wouldn't relinquish that lead.  Still up three a couple of minutes later, a huge three late in the shot clock by Stevenson on the left wing gave the Saints a six point lead and a steal and score from Hill-Bey gave them an eight point cushion with just over 1:00 remaining.  Colby was forced to start the fouling game and managed to get the game back to within one possession at 80-77 with under a minute left.  With the Saints lead down to two, Stevenson hit a pair of big free throws to make it an 84-80 game with just 13 seconds left, but after a Trojan free throw and a pair of misses at the line by the Saints, Colby had the ball with a chance to tie the game as time wound down.  They turned to their superstar Jeremiah Ingram, who had an off  night Wednesday, and he was unable to tie the game as time expired and the Saints held on to win 85-82. 

 

Hill-Bey backed up a career high 24 point performance Saturday against Garden City with a new career high 26 Wednesday against the Trojans.  Stevenson added 23 for Seward and Brian Bridgeforth had arguably the best game of his Saints career with 14 points and 13 rebounds. 

 

Seward picks up their eighth straight win and is now 12-6 overall and 2-0 in Jayhawk West action while Colby falls to 9-9 and 0-2 in league play. 

 

The Saints now turn their sights to #12 Hutchinson who will make a their first trip to the Greenhouse since Seward won the 2013 Jayhawk West title against them in Liberal last February, on Saturday.  The Saints and Dragons will get going at 8:00 with free tickets courtesy of our buyout sponsor Bank of Beaver City, at their Liberal location as well as at Pizza Hut and the North Hutch's C store.