Seward Holds Off Barton For 18th Win

After building a lead of as many as 20 points midway through the second half, the #10 Seward County Lady Saints were forced to strap on their seatbelts and hang on Wednesday night in Great Bend, defeating Barton 79-72 to earn their third straight conference road win and their 18^th win overall on the season. 

Looking to avoid their first losing streak of the season, the Lady Saints got off to a good start against the Lady Cougars who were trying to avoid their second straight Jayhawk West loss after falling to Cloud County last Saturday.

 

Four early points from Shanise Brooks gave Seward an early edge and after Barton grabbed their first lead, a Payton Fleming free throw tied the game at 8 as the game ticked past the five minute mark.  What turned into a four point trip down the floor for the Lady Cougars spurred a 6-0 run and with 13:49 left in the half the Lady Saints found themselves down 14-8.  Then it was the Lady Saints turn for a 6-0 run as they tied the game back up and Seward extended their run to 9-0 to take a three point lead before Barton evened things once again, this time at 17 as the first half media timeout hit.

 

That's when Rebekah Hatchard came off the bench and gave the Lady Saints the spark that they needed.  The freshman Aussie finished off a drive to the basket and was fouled, completing the three point lead to put Seward up 23-22 with 7:56 to go in the half and followed that up with a three pointer from beyond the arc to give the Lady Saints a 30-26 lead later on.  She continued her hot shooting with another three to give Seward a six point lead, 35-26 with just under 2:00 to go in the half.  Seward began to take control of the game as they grabbed a loose ball and went down and scored to push their run to 13-0, taking their first double digit lead of the game at 37-26 with 1:40 remaining in the half.  The Lady Saints carried all the momentum into the halftime break, leading by a dozen, 39-27 thanks to a 15-2 run in the final 5:00 of the half. 

 

Seward held Barton to just 29% shooting from the field in the first half and connected on 44% on their end.  The Lady Saints knocked in 4 of 10 from downtown in the first 20 minutes while the Lady Cougars came up empty on five attempts.  Hatchard led Seward with 11 first half points while Brooks pitched in 8 and had a game high 5 first half rebounds. 

 

The Lady Saints wasted no time in continuing their onslaught of the Lady Cougars early in the second half and a bucket and a free throw from Korina Chapman had Seward in front 46-31 with 15:42 left in the game.  A steal and score from Brianna Scott put the Lady Saints on top 49-33 moments later and a pair of Fabiana Monte free throws gave Seward their largest lead of the night at 58-38 with 11:39 to go. 

 

Just when it looked like Seward had everything under control, the old saying that nothing comes easy in the Jayhawk West reared its ugly head.  An 8-2 Barton run over the next 2:19 got the Lady Cougars back to within striking distance at 62-50 before the Lady Saints responses with four straight points to go back up by 16, 66-50.  Two Seward turnovers and a flurry of Lady Cougar free throws brought the Lady Saints lead all the way down to 66-56 with 4:24 left and the gals in green couldn't stop the bleeding as Barton continued to roll, erasing the huge Seward deficit all the way to five at 66-61 with 3:34 left.  The clock couldn't run fast enough for Seward who had visions of an early season win over New Mexico where they let a big lead get away from them late in their heads.  The Lady Saints pushed their lead back to eight and on their next possession got a huge three from Janel Tammen as time expired on the shotclock to put them back up by double digits with under one minute left.  The last minute of game time took nearly six minutes of actual time before Seward was able to hang on to win 78-72 to send the host crowd home unhappy. 

 

Brooks led five Seward players in double figures in the win, going for a team high 17 for the Lady Saints.  Alana Simon struggled shooting, going just 3 for 11, but canned 8 of 11 from the free throw line to finish with 14 points while Monte ended the night with 12 points and 6 rebounds and Chapman finished with 10 points and a team best 8 boards. 

 

Seward improves to 18-2 overall on the season and 3-1 in Jayhawk West action while Barton falls to 14-6 overall and 2-2 in league play.  Up next for the Lady Saints is a home date with Dodge City Saturday where they will celebrate Homecoming night in the Greenhouse.  Seward and Dodge will tip at 6:00 with Homecoming festivities following the game.  Free tickets are available courtesy of our buyout sponsor Pizza Hut at any of their Liberal locations.