Stevenson's Career Night Pushes Saints Past Garden

Seward County freshman Niem Stevenson's back might be getting just a little bit sore, and it didn't get any better Wednesday night in the Greenhouse as he once again put the Saints on his back, scoring a career high 36 points as Seward held on against rival Garden City for a 69-60 win to remain in the top spot in the Jayhawk West standings. 

It was a combination of Stevenson's offense and Seward's defense that was the story early on on Wednesday.  The Seward freshman scored 9 of the Saints first 11 points of the game, pushing them out to an early 11-2 cushion 4:30 into the game.  Another Stevenson bucket stretched the Saints lead to 13-3 with 13:12 left in the half and into the first half media timeout, the Saints had still not yielded a field goal to the Busters as they led by that 13-3 count.  Garden City finally got their first field goal at the 8:13 mark, but with Stevenson out of the game with two fouls, the Saints had trouble initiating their offense and therefore their lead remained just 10 at 17-7 with 5:05 left in the half.  It took until the 4:14 mark until Garden City got their second field goal of the game to make the score 17-9 Seward, but the Saints responded with a 10-0 run to take a 27-9 lead in the half. 

The half defensively was of historic proportions for Seward.  Garden City managed just 9 points, on 2 field goals, and 8% shooting which are all the lowest marks for an opponent in a half in school history.  The Saints weren't exactly on fire themselves on the offensive end, turning the ball over 13 times, but did manage to shoot 46% from the field in the period.  Stevenson outscored Garden by himself in the half with 11 points to the Busters 9. 

Things picked up every so slowly as the second half began and four minutes in, the Saints were doubling up the Busters 30-15.  A couple of Garden buckets started to get the Busters a second wind and a score and two free throws off of a Seward technical had them to within ten, 33-23 with 14:47 remaining.  Garden cut the Saints lead to single digits for the first time since early in the game with another score, but back to back steal and scores for the guys in green pushed their lead back to 12 at 37-25 with 10:49 to go.  Both teams started picking things up offensively and Seward's lead grew to 44-30 with under 10:00 left.  Even though they were playing their third game in five days, the Busters just would not go away however.  Garden crept back in and made it a 11 point game with 7:30 remaining and it wasn't until a Stevenson three and Evan Allen steal and score that the Saints gave themselves some breathing room, on top 51-35 with 6:42 left.  Seward's kept their distance from the Busters, still up by 12 with 2:00 left but the Saints began fighting the clock and Garden City from that point and found themselves quickly in just a six point game, 60-54 after Garden City banked in a three pointer with under 1:00 to go.  The teams traded baskets and free throws for the next 40 seconds as Seward was able to build their lead back up to 67-58 and the Saints would finally hang on to win 69-60 to end a long night in the Greenhouse. 

The Saints finished the game shooting 47% from the field while Garden City heated up in the second half to 46% but their dreadful start left them at just 29% on the night overall.  The Busters came into the game as the leading rebounding team in the conference, but for the second time in two meetings, the Saints outrebounded Garden.  This time Seward won the battle on the glass 44-36, much of that coming due to Garden's ineptness on the offensive end in the first 20 minutes. 

Stevenson finished with a career high 36 points for Seward on just 12 of 18 shooting.  His 36 points put him in elite company, as one of just 11 Saints players to ever reach the 36 point plateau.  He is the first Seward player since Keoni Watson in 2004-2005 to score 36 or more in a game.  Stevenson was the only Seward player to reach double figures in the win as Secean Johnson was second on the team with 9 and Malcolm Hill-Bey finished with 8.  Raoul Mentor, starting his first game as a Saint, had a large piece in the Saints big defensive first half, blocking 4 first half shots and pulling down 9 first half rebounds before finishing with a career high 11 boards on the night. 

The Saints improve to 18-8 overall on the year and 8-2 in Jayhawk West Conference play.  Garden City falls to 19-8 overall and to .500 at 5-5 in league action.  Seward remains in first place and has a one game lead on both Pratt and Hutchinson who are tied for second at 7-3.  The Busters drop into 5^th place, but are just two games away from making a play for 2^nd place in the West. 

Seward will hit the road on Saturday where they will travel to Dodge City to take on the Conquistadors in an 8:10 tip at United Wireless Arena.  The Saints return home next Wednesday in a key Jayhawk West tilt with Barton in the Greenhouse at 8:00.