Saints Stunned at the Buzzer by Colby

In a season that has been filled with near misses, the Seward County Saints added another to their list of frustrating last second losses on Monday, allowing a tip in with under one second remaining in overtime to fall to the Colby Trojans 84-82. 

Going up against a long front line of Colby in a packed in zone, the Saints struggled early on Monday in the Community Building, watching the Trojans go on an 11-2 run early in the contest to jump out to a 16-6 lead to start the game.  With whistles blowing seemingly every 10 seconds, both teams struggled to find their rhythm through the middle portion of the first half and at the media timeout, both teams found themselves in the double bonus with the Trojans holding onto a 21-15 lead.  Play continued to be muddied, but the Saints battled through it, taking their first lead since the opening seconds of the contest as Delwin Young got a steal and a score to make it 23-22 with 7:42 left in the half.  An offensive rebound and putback by Jeromie Simmons put the Saints in front by four with 6:30 left and the teams took turns parading back and forth to the free throw line for the remainder of the half with the Saints holding a 36-33 lead at the break. 

The first half saw 33 foul calls and 34 free throws shot, with seven different Saints racking up two or more whistles on them in the period.  The Saints shot 45% in the half while Colby shot 37% overall.  Turnovers mounted on both sides with Colby coughing it up 15 times in the half and the Saints turning it over 11 times.  Niem Stevenson led Seward with 9 first half points while Simmons sparked them off the bench with 6 points and 3 rebounds. 

Colby quickly evened the score up as the second half began, but the Saints came right back with five straight points to go back in front 43-38 with 17:05 remaining.  Seward pushed their lead to seven on yet another Colby turnover with 11:32 remaining and took their largest lead of the night with Mitchell Packard connected on a midrange jumper with 7:40 to go.  The Saints remained in front by six as the clock ticked under 5:00, but they went ice cold down the stretch, watching as Colby went on a 10-0 run to take a 67-63 lead with just over 1:00 left.  With 31 seconds left and it still a four point game, Delano Jones cashed in a left wing three to make it a one point game at 69-68.  A Seward foul and subsequent pair of free throws for the Trojans made it a three point game at 71-68 with 25 seconds left.  On the Saints next possession, with the game on the line and time winding down, they went to their All-American and a hobbled Stevenson stepped up and knocked down a deep guarded three to tie the game up at 71.  With the shot clock off, Colby had the ball with a chance to win, but the Saints ripped off a huge steal and turned the tables with their chance to win.  Instead of going for the win though, the Saints backed the ball out and eventually turned the ball over with 1.3 seconds left without getting a game winning shot attempt off.  Colby couldn't make a desperation shot at the buzzer and to overtime the Saints and Trojans went tied at 71.

 Five early points in the extra period by Jones gave the Saints a 78-73 lead one minute into overtime.  Seward remained up by four with 3:00 left in the first overtime, but as they did in regulation, went ice cold in crunch time.  Colby went on a 6-0 run over the next two minutes to erase the Saints lead and take an 82-80 lead of their own with 1:11 to go.  Looking for the lead with under a minute left, Jones was fouled on a three point attempt and made two of three from the line to tie the game back at 82.  The Saints got a stop on Colby's next possession and had a chance to take the last shot of the game for the win, but they chose to attempt a three with 15 seconds left which was off the mark and Colby cleared the boards and had their shot at the win.  The Trojans raced the ball up the floor, but their first attempt missed, but as they had all night, Colby crashed the glass and got an offensive rebound and with 0.5 seconds remaining, got a tip in to put them up 84-82.  With only a half second left, the Saints couldn't even get a shot off and walked off the floor stunned in an 84-82 loss. 

Outside of the overall shooting percentages, there were some wide disparities on the stat sheet at night's end.  Colby outrebounded Seward 55-38 including 19 offensive rebounds that turned into 17 second chance points including the two game winning points.  The Saints forced Colby into 34 turnovers while giving it up their fair share too with 22.  The Trojans shot 42 free throws on the night while the Saints shot 25. 

Stevenson ended with 19 points and 9 rebounds for the Saints in the loss.  Charles Beauregard added 16 and Jones had 12. 

The loss is a big one for Seward who will now be in a fight for home court advantage in the first round of the upcoming Region VI Tournament.  The Saints slip from 5^th place to 7^th with the loss, dropping to 18-9 overall and 8-8 in conference play where they are now just one game in front of both Butler and Garden City for the final spot.  Colby improves to 16-11 overall and 9-8 in league play where they switch places with Seward and take over 5^th place. 

Seward's week won't get any easier as they have just one day now to prepare for a Wednesday battle with Garden City in the Perryman Center in an 8:00 tip. 

SEWARD COUNTY/COLBY BOX SCORE