Seward Shakes Off Slow Start to Win Jayhawk Opener

In what seemed like a game that took the calendar forever to get to, the Seward County Lady Saints finally kicked off their 2014 Jayhawk West Conference schedule on Saturday night on the road in Garden City, defeating the homestanding Busters 71-59 to improve to 16-1 on the year.  

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It couldn't have been much worse of a start for the gals in green Saturday night, who were looking for their first win on the road at Garden City in over three seasons.  Seward could get nothing going early on and fell behind 12-0 to the fired up Busters before they could blink.  In fact, it took over 6:00 for the Lady Saints to finally score in the game when a Seward bucket cut the Garden City lead to 12-2.  The Lady Saints kept clawing though and cut the Garden City lead to just five midway through the half and after tying the game at 16, a drive and score from Kyndal Davis put Seward in front for the first time in the game 18-16 with 8:02 to go in the half.  The teams battled back and forth to 22-22 when a 14-2 Lady Saint run gave them their largest lead of the game at 36-24 with time winding down in the half.  Garden City picked up a three pointer before the break, but Seward took a comfortable 36-27 lead into the half.  

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Seward's game of slow starts continued as the second half got underway.  Garden City raced out of the gates, scoring the first eight points of the half this time around to quickly cut the Seward lead to 36-35.  Then it was the Lady Saints turn to make a run and their second 12-2 jaunt of the contest stretched their lead back to 48-37 with 11:43 left in the game.  Moments later, an old fashioned three point play from Korina Chapman gave Seward their largest lead of the game at 55-41, but once again, the Busters kept on the Lady Saints, getting the Seward lead back down to single digits as the clock ticked under 5:00 to go with the score 61-53.  A key runout and score from Payton Fleming all but sealed the deal late and the Lady Saints went on to win 71-59.  

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Five Seward players reached double figures in scoring in the victory.  Chapman and Alana Simon tied for the team lead in points with 14 while Shanise Brooks, Davis, and Fleming all finished with 10.  

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Taking away the 12-0 start to the game and the 8-0 start to begin the second half for the Busters, Seward actually outscored Garden City 71-39 in the contest.  The win for Seward breaks a three year drought for the Lady Saints without a win in the Perryman Center against the Busters.  

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The 9th ranked Lady Saints improve to 16-1 on the year and bring home the victory in their conference opener while the loss snaps a five game Garden City win streak as they drop back to .500 at 8-8 and 0-1 in league play.  The teams will head opposite directions in their next games as the Lady Saints take on a struggling 2-14 Colby squad in the Community Building on Wednesday while Garden City will hit the road for their second top 10 ranked opponent of the week as they battle Hutchinson in the Sports Arena.  

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