Saints Soar Past Trojans 78-64

Following a four game stretch in which they played less than their best, the Seward County Saints took a small step in the right direction on Wednesday night in the Greenhouse, knocking off the visiting Colby Trojans 78-64 to earn their 16^th win of the 2013-2014 season. 

An early three by Niem Stevenson got the Saints off on the right foot and a 6-0 run including buckets from Quentin Purtue and Brian Bridgeforth sparked them to an 11-4 lead four minutes into the game.  After their lead was cut to five by the Trojans a huge putback dunk from Bridgeforth ignited the crowd and put the Saints on top 17-10 with 11:11 to go in the half.  Colby was content to play a slow moving, defensive battle with the Saints and their tactic worked as they methodically cut into the Saints lead before getting to within one at 20-19 with 6:36 left in the half.  A key three from Malcolm Hill-Bey pushed the Saints lead back to four and a three point play by Stevenson later on gave the Saints a six point lead, 32-26 with 1:57 remaining in the period.  The Saints held Colby scoreless for the final 2:27 of the half and scored once themselves to take a 34-26 lead into the half. 

The Saints scoring was balanced in the first as both Bridgeforth and Stevenson finished with 9 first half points while Hill-Bey and Purtue scored 6 apiece for Seward.  The Saints shot 48% in the period while Colby shot 42%. 

The Saints retook a double digit lead early in the second half as Stevenson collected an offensive rebound and scored to make it 42-32 and a steal and dunk from Evan Allen woke the crowd up once again and had Seward out to their largest lead at 44-32 with 15:59 left.  Seward extended their lead to 49-35, but a four minute stretch without a field goal had Colby within striking distance once again as the Saints lead as down to 50-42  with 9:12 remaining in the clock.  Two Purtue free throws and yet another acrobatic Stevenson drive to the basket put the Saints up 57-45 and Secean Johnson got a steal on an inbounds pass and scored to cushion the Saints lead to 61-45 with 5:25 left.  A Colby three drew them back to within 11 with just under 2:00 to go, but that was as close as the Trojans got as Seward knocked down free throws down the stretch and held on to win 78-64. 

Seward's second half was much more impressive than their first as they shot 57% from the field and showed a sign of hope at the free throw line, cashing in 80% of their foul shots to ice the game away.  The Saints finished the game shooting 52% from the field while Colby ended the night shooting a respectable 47%. 

Stevenson was once again the star for Seward, scoring a game high 21 while Purtue had a nice showing with 16 and Hill-Bey dropped in 15 points and had a team high 5 assists.  Bridgeforth ended the night with 13 points and also had 8 rebounds and 4 blocks for the Saints. 

Seward is now 16-8 overall and rebounds from their second conference loss of the season to move to 6-2 in Jayhawk West play, good for second place at night's end.  Colby falls to 9-15 overall, losing their 12^th straight to an NJCAA opponent and the Trojans leave Liberal still searching for their first conference win of the year at 0-8. 

Next up for the Saints is a hopefully their first of two trips this season to the Sports Arena in Hutchinson.  Seward will battle #12 Hutchinson for the second time this year beginning at 7:30 Saturday night in the Salt City. 

SEWARD COUNTY/COLBY BOX SCORE