Saints lose back and forth affair 68-67

Liberal, KS - The Saints collected a rebound with 9 seconds and down 68-67 but were never able to get a shot off, losing to Hutchinson CC 68-67. Seward County Community College moves on to 13-10 overall and 6-8 in conference play, Hutchinson Community College is now 17-6 overall and 8-6 in conference play.

To start the game Hutchinson jumped out to a 6-0 lead but the Saints responded with a 6-0 run of their own with Greg Johnson's back to back three's to tie it up. This would be the makeup for the rest of the game, with each team exchanging runs and leads. Seward took their largest lead of the game with five minutes left in the half on a pair of free throws by Kyle Cardaci to lead 30-23. Blue Dragons ended the half on a 13-5 run to reclaim the lead at halftime 36-35. The Saints scored 21 points of their 35 first-half total from behind the three-point line and shot 38% as a team from that range.  

The Saints built a double-digit lead early in the 2nd half at 48-38 with a three by Surakata Jawara, this was the largest lead of the game for Seward. Hutchinson came roaring back with a 16-4 run to reclaim the lead at 54-52 with less than 10 minutes to go in the game. After a Cardaci three-point play to tie the game at 65, Stephen Takyi had a putback bucket with two minutes to play to take a 2 point lead.  After a couple of defensive stops for both teams, Htuchsinson's Jash Baker hit a deep three with 1 minute to go to take a 68-67 lead.

Baker led the Bluedragons with 21 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists. Clarence King added 14 points off of the bench and D.J. Mitchell had 13 points.

The Saints had a balanced attack with Cardaci leading the way with 16 points and 5 assists. Rostislav Novitskyi and Greg Johnson both had 10 points in the game as well.

The Saints travel to Garden City Community College on Wednesday to take on the Broncbusters.