Saints-Butler Preview

LIBERAL, Kan. – The Seward County Community College Saints host the Butler Community College Grizzlies at 7:30 p.m. tonight in the Greenhouse.

The Saints are 0-2 in the Jayhawk Conference and 1-6 overall. Seward dropped its first two conference games losing in overtime at Cloud County, 74-69, on Wednesday and at Cowley, 88-69, on Saturday.

The Saints have been competitive in their games, but have battled mental mistakes, which have led to tough losses. Against Cloud, Seward held a lead into the final minutes of regulation, but errors cost the team and it ended up losing in overtime. In its contest at Cowley, the Saints were only down two at half, but turnovers crushed them, committing 18 of their 30 in the second half.

Despite the losses, there have been bright spots on the roster. Dekwon Brown is averaging 15.76 ppg, including 11-of-36 (30.6 percent) from three-point range and Muhammed Jobe is scoring 12.6 ppg along with averaging 5.2 rebounds for the Saints, who averaging 73.7 points a game.

Another bright spot is Trayon Grant-Foster, who returned from an injury on Saturday, averaging 10 ppg, including 18 points at Cowley. Sophomore Lovasoa Andriatsarafara, Seward's big man, had off-season surgery and is slowly regaining his form in limited play, averaging 5.3 ppg and 8.7 rpg.

Butler heads into tonight's contest ranked 11th in the nation with a 1-0 in the Jayhawk conference and 6-1 record overall.

The Grizzlies opened their conference season with an 83-80 win over Pratt at home on Saturday. Bubba Leavell had 16 points and Josiah Kirkwood scored 14 to lead the Grizzlies to a late from-behind win.

Leavell is Butler's top scorer, averaging 14.9 ppg, followed by Emeka Opurum with 10.3 ppg.

Butler's lone loss of the season came against Northern Oklahoma College – Tonkawa, 85-75, on Wednesday.