#9 Lady Saints Down Cloud For Win #20

In what was built up to be yet another Jayhawk West heavyweight battle in the Greenhouse Wednesday night, the matchup between Seward County and Cloud County actually turned out to be one that was a little bit hard on the eyes.  The teams were plagued with turnovers in the first half, combining for 32 of them, 16 per side in the first 20 minutes as the Lady Saints jumped out to a 39-35 lead.  With their leading scorer already out of the game with an ankle injury, Cloud then lost their second leading scorer to the same type of injury and Seward took advantage, opening the game up in the second half and never trailing as they went on to win 80-66. 

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In the two games prior to their date with the Lady Saints, Cloud County had shot just 9 for 47 from the three point line, both games of which they lost.  Because of that, Seward played the law of averages early on against the Lady T-Birds, daring Cloud to take the shots from the outside. The Lady T-Birds did just that, banging home their first three attempts from beyond the arc to take an early 9-4 lead on the Lady Saints in front of a less than electrifying Greenhouse crowd.  A three from Fabiana Monte and a drive and score from Kyndal Davis got Seward on track, tying the game at 9 with 14:40 to go in the half and the Lady Saints took the lead as Korina Chapman scored minutes later to make it 13-11.  Seward remained in front by a couple through the midway point of the half until Cloud took the lead back 18-17 as the clock ticked under 8:00.  After Cloud went up 20-17, another three from Monte and an old fashioned three point play from Brooks put Seward on top 23-20 with 6:14 remaining in the half. It continued to be a see saw battle as the Lady T-Birds took the lead once again before Payton Fleming stepped up and drilled a three to make it 26-25 Lady Saints with 4:16 left in the period. It remained a tight one to the half despite Cloud County losing their top player Jordyn Alexander to an ankle injury late in the half.  At the break it was 39-35 Seward as the Lady Saints shot 57% from the field in the first 20 minutes.  

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The 57% shooting aside for Seward, the first half wasn't a pretty one.  The Lady Saints turned the ball over 16 times, fortunately for them, Cloud County did the same thing, coughing it up 16 times to Seward in the period.  Each team had an 11 point scorer and a 10 point scorer in the first half as Monte and Alana Simon did it for the Lady Saints and Raneisha Duncan and Jayna Smith did it for the Lady T-Birds.  

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As the second half started it was more bad news for Cloud County.  Early in the action, with Alexander already down, they lost Courtney Fisher to an apparent ankle injury, leaving them without their two leading scorers for the duration of the game.  Even with their backs against the wall, Cloud continued to hang around and it was still a four point game until another Lady T-Bird turnover turned into two points for Seward on a Davis score to push the Lady Saints lead to 47-41 with 15:15 to go.  The Lady Saints looked like they were going to take control as Brianna Scott nailed a three to give them a 52-44 lead with 13:47 left, but as they did all night, Cloud continued to scrap, getting back to within two, 57-55 with 10:10 remaining.  Slowly but surely, the Lady Saints built onto their lead in the next four minutes.  Pushing their advantage to eight, Monte hit a pullup jumper from 10 to give the gals in green their largest lead of the night at 69-59 with just over 6:00 left.  It looked like the blow that finally knocked Cloud County out of the fight as Seward built their cushion to 75-61 before finally putting the Lady T-Birds away 80-66.  

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Seward was efficient on the offensive end, ending the night shooting 54% from the field and 45% from the three point line.  The Lady Saints dominated the glass, winning the battle of the boards 41-27 including picking up 12 offensive rebounds in the win.  Monte scored her season high for the second game in a row, following up a 20 point night Saturday with 21 Wednesday against Cloud.  Simon came up big as well with 19 while Scott and Davis each reached double figures with 11 and 10 respectively. The teams combined for 49 turnovers on the night, 25 for Seward and 24 for Cloud.  

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The Lady Saints pick up win number 20, marking the 22nd straight year of 20 or more wins for the Seward program.  The Lady Saints are now 20-2 overall and 5-1 in Jayhawk West action, good for sole possession of second place.  Cloud County drops their unheard of third straight Jayhawk West game, falling to 12-9 overall and 3-3 in league action.  

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Seward will hit the court once again on Saturday when they wrap up the first half of Jayhawk West action when they travel to the Beaverdome in Pratt to take on a dangerous Lady Beavers squad which features the league's leading scorer Tatiana Grant.  The Lady Saints and Lady Beavs will tip off at 6:00 with live coverage on KSCB radio.