High Flying Saints Blow Past Butler 101-81

The top scoring team in the Jayhawk Conference, the 15^th ranked Seward County Saints flexed their muscles Wednesday night in their home conference opener against the Butler Grizzlies, racing past their old Jayhawk West foe 101-81 to improve to 13-1 overall on the season. 

Early on it was all Charles Beauregard for the Saints as the redshirt freshman guard scored Seward's first eight points of the game to push them out to an early 8-5 lead on the Grizzlies.  Mitchell Packard knocked down a three and Niem Stevenson drove to the basket and scored to extend the Saints lead to 13-5 at the 16:59 mark of the first half.  Butler trimmed the Saints lead to six four minutes later and had it down to a one point game at 23-22 at the midway point of the first half.   A big three from Delano Jones put Seward back up four and the rifleman canned another triple moments later to make it a five point game, 29-24 with 8:19 left in the period.  The Grizzlies took their first lead since the opening minutes of the game at 35-34 with 2:38 remaining in the half, but Marcus Mathieu immediately answered with a three of his own for Seward to put them back in front.  Seward picked up steam from there and was only stopped by the halftime horn as they outscored the Grizzlies 14-4 to close the period to take a 48-39 lead into the break at halftime. 

The Saints shot a blistering 59% in the first half including hitting on 62% from the three point line at 8 for 13.  Butler shot 41% overall and also stroked it from downtown at 7 for 16.  Beauregard led all scorers with 14 for Seward at the half while three other Saints scored eight first half points. 

Seward did not start the second half the way they finished the first and in the blink of an eye, the Grizzlies were back to within three at 51-48.  Four straight points from Beauregard opened their lead back to seven and a pair of free throws from him would make it a 61-50 game with 14:39 left.  Seward kept their distance from the Grizzlies to the midway point of the second half, but couldn't quite put them away until Packard connected on his second three of the night to jumpstart a quick 6-2 run that all but extinguished Butlers final embers as the Saints took a 15 point lead at 74-59.  The Saints kept the pedal to the metal to the finish line and Butler never got closer than 12 as Seward took the air out of the ball late and got a three from James Byrd in the closing moments to put an exclamation mark on a 101-81 victory for the home team. 

The Saints finished the game shooting 52% from the field while connecting on a season best 55% from the three point line.  Six Seward players reached double figures in the win led by Beauregard who finished with 22 and Mathieu who scored 17 and had six rebounds on the night.  

The win means that the Saints keep pace at the top of the Jayhawk Conference standings at 3-0, tied with Hutchinson and Colby, while improving their overall record to 13-1 on the campaign.  Butler drops their second straight game, falling to 9-5 overall and 1-2 in Jayhawk play on the season. 

Next up for Seward is their final game of the first semester when they host the Pratt Beavers at home in the Greenhouse on Saturday at 8:00.  Free tickets are available courtesy of our buyout sponsor Billy's/AYR Lanes at their Liberal location. 

#15 SEWARD COUNTY/BUTLER BOX SCORE