Saints Shocked By T-Birds

The old adage 'anyone can beat anyone on a given night' reared its ugly head Saturday night in Concordia, Kansas as the one time Jayhawk Conference contending Seward County Saints took on a Cloud County team that entered the contest 1-13 in conference play and hadn't won a single game in over a month.  The Thunderbirds showed no fear against a team that beat them by 28 earlier in the season in the Greenhouse, using a 17-0 run before the half to take a 38-32 lead into the break before building an 18 point second half advantage and hanging on down the stretch to stun Seward County 76-74 and all but end any hopes the Saints had to make a run at the league title down the stretch. 

Things started well for the Saints Saturday after their five plus hour bus ride to North Central Kansas, as they came out of the gates with three straight three pointers to take a 9-3 lead on Cloud out of the chutes.  The T-Birds got hot, cutting into the Saints lead, but Seward did their fair share of scoring as well, using a 7-0 run to take their largest lead of the game out of the media timeout at 31-21 with 7:30 to go in the half.  That's when things went sideways for the Saints.  The league's top scoring team was held without a single point for the rest of the half as Cloud County went on a 17-0 run to close the period to storm into the locker room at the break on top of a stunned Saints squad 38-32. 

In what on paper was a huge mismatch in favor of the Saints, Seward couldn't slow the T-Birds down as the second half got underway as Cloud pushed their lead to a dozen at the midway point and then 18 just after the second half media timeout.  Just when it looked like the Saints were out of it for good, they dug their heels in, going on a run of their own to cut the Cloud lead to six with 4:50 to go and finally getting to within one at 67-66 with 3:21 remaining after an 18-3 push.  In a two point game with 2:40 to go, the Saints were whistled for a foul and then a key technical foul, giving Cloud County four free throws, three of which they made, to stretch their lead to five at 71-66.  That's when Delano Jones started feeling his stroke, nailing a guarded three to make it a two point game and then burying another with 1:29 to go to erase the 18 point T-Bird lead completely and give the Saints a one point, 72-71 lead of their own.  Cloud tied the game with a free throw and the two teams traded four more free throws to make it a 74-74 game with 25 seconds remaining.  With the shot clock off and a chance to get the last shot of the game, the Saints inexplicably turned the ball over and then added insult to injury, fouling the T-Birds with 2 seconds left to send Cloud to the line for two shots.  As cool as a cucumber, Cloud County's Aamahne Santos stepped to the line with the game on the line and hit both foul shots to put the T-Birds up 76-74.  The Saints got a good look to win it at the buzzer and thought for a minute that they might get a chance to tie or win the game at the free throw line, but the whistle was not blown and Seward stood stunned on the visitors bench with a 76-74 loss. 

The two teams final numbers were strikingly similar as Seward shot 42% to Cloud's 44% while both teams shot the three well, the Saints at 41% and the T-Birds 48%.  Cloud outscored the Saints by two at the free throw line.  The Saints lost the rebounding battle once again by double digits, 42-28 on the night while Seward turned the ball over just 8 times compared to 18 by Cloud County.  Individually Niem Stevenson led Seward with 26 points and 9 rebounds in the losing effort while Charles Beauregard added 18. 

The loss drops Seward to 17-7 on the year and 7-6 in Jayhawk Conference action where they now sit in 6^th place, just ½ game ahead of Colby who they will see twice in the next 14 days.  Cloud County earns a rare victory, snapping a nine game losing streak to improve to 9-17 overall on the year as they pick up just their second Jayhawk Conference win of the year, improving to 2-13. 

Things will certainly not get any easier for Seward who will now turn their sights onto red hot Hutchinson who will go into Wednesday's battle with the Saints in the Greenhouse riding a seven game winning streak.  The Saints and Dragons will tip at 8:00 Wednesday with free tickets at First National Bank locations in Liberal. 

SEWARD COUNTY/CLOUD COUNTY BOX SCORE