Saints win third straight game with a victory over Pratt

LIBERAL, Kan. – The Seward County Community College men's basketball team fought back from an 11-point deficit, squandered a 14-point lead and made clutch shots in the final minute to knock off Pratt Community College Beavers, 68-63, on Wednesday at the Greenhouse. The Saints won their third game in a row to improve to 11-7 overall and 4-5 in the Jayhawk West, tying them with the Beavers for fourth place.

The teams were knotted at 30 each at the half, but the Saints came out of the locker room and went on an offensive explosion, going on a 21-7 run to take a 51-37 lead with 9:24 remaining. This was the largest lead of the game for either team, but the Beavers responded with a run of their own, using a barrage of threes to key a 25-9 run and reclaim the lead at 62-60 with 3:13 left. For the fifth straight game, the Saints were in a one-possession contest entering the final minute of the game.

Samuel Henderson snapped a tie and gave Seward a 64-63 lead by hitting one-of-two from the free-throw line. After coming up with a defensive stop, Kyle Cardaci connected on a short corner jumper with time expiring on the shot clock to give Seward a 66-63 lead with 18 seconds left. After a Beaver three-point attempt was no good, Greg Johnson came down with the defensive rebound, was fouled immediately and connected on the double-bonus free-throws to clinch the game.

In the first half, the Saints struggled from the field and the Beavers took a 27-18 lead with 3:40 left. Seward answered with 12-3 run to close out the half with Surakata Jawara, Ramiro Santiago, and Henderson connecting on three straight threes during the final three minutes. Both teams shot above 50 percent from behind the three-point line.

Pratt was led by Deontae Davis with 19 points, and 8 rebounds. Jamel Horton with 15 points and Zool Kueth with 14 points were the other Beavers in double-digits.

Seward was led by Rostyslav Novitskyi with 18 points and 6 rebounds and Ramiro Santiago contributed 15 points on 3-of-5 from behind the three-point line and 6-of-8 from the free-throw line.

The Saints are back in action at 3 p.m. on Saturday at Dodge City Community College.