Saints Get Road Monkey Off Their Back With Win at Colby
| Final | 1 | 2 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Seward County Community College (12-11, 5-5) | 37 | 48 | 85 |
|
Colby Community College (12-12, 3-7) | 25 | 37 | 62 |
All season long to this point, the road has been a struggle for the Seward County Saints. The Saints went into Wednesday night's contest with Colby 0-7 on the road in 2014-2015, but used a solid team effort to get that monkey off their backs, blowing the homestanding Trojans away by a count of 85-62 to crawl back to the .500 mark in Jayhawk West play on the year.
Everything was clicking for the Saints early on against the Trojans as they jumped out to an 11-1 lead on a barrage of three pointers on the offensive end and a relentless attack on the defensive end. It wasn't until 5:12 into things that Colby managed their first field goal of the game, but that didn't faze the Saints who kept on rolling, getting all the way out to a 20-3 lead on the Trojans with 11:30 remaining in the first half. A 10-0 run by Colby stopped the Seward momentum and drew the Trojans to within seven, but even without a pair of starters strapped to the bench in foul trouble, the Saints were able to push their lead back to 30-21 with just over a minute to go before the half. The action was fast and furious in the final minute of the period before a Derrick Dorn fade away three from the corner capped the scoring and gave the Saints a 37-25 lead at the break.
Secean Johnson led the Saints with 10 first half points despite being sidelined for seven minutes with foul trouble. Kevin Sims had 8 first half points as well as 8 first half rebounds in 15 minutes of work. Seward shot 48% in the half and banged home 6 of 12 three point attempts while Colby shot just 39% and was a dreadful 4 of 10 from the free throw line in the period.
The Saints were quiet coming out of the break and couldn't scratch the scoreboard for the first three minutes as Colby worked their way back to within seven. A three by Sims jumpstarted the offense and another triple from the freshman put the Saints up 50-37 with 12:07 remaining in the game. Back to back acrobatic three point plays by Sims and Mitchell Packard kept the Saints up big past the midway point of the half and Seward's defense began creating easy chances on the other end for the guys in green to blow their lead open to 68-49 with 6:53 to go. Seward went up by as many as 25 later in the period before finally cruising home with an 85-62 win, their first on the road this season.
Seward shot a blistering 66% in the second half to finish the game at 57% shooting overall. Despite being extremely outsized most of the night, including the 6'2 Packard playing the Saints center position at times, Seward managed to outrebound the Trojans by one, 32-31 in the game. Sims backed up a career high 28 point performance Saturday with 25 on Wednesday night and recorded a career high 10 rebounds for his first Seward double-double. Four other Saints scored in double figures in the contest and Packard pitched in a career best 9 in 25 minutes of work.
The Saints move to 12-11 overall on the year and get back to the .500 mark in Jayhawk West play with their second straight victory. Seward now sits in 5th place in the league standings, ½ game behind their opponent Saturday, the Pratt Beavers. Colby continues their freefall, dropping to 12-12 overall and 3-7 in league action.
Next up for the Saints is a return home to the Greenhouse Saturday night where they will host Pratt in a big Jayhawk West contest beginning at 8:00. Free tickets are available courtesy of our buyout sponsors Holiday Inn and Flooring America at both of their Liberal locations.