Seward Dispatches Colby For 5th Straight
| Final | 1 | 2 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Colby Community College (2-22,0-8) | 31 | 23 | 54 |
|
Seward County Community College (22-2,7-1) | 43 | 37 | 80 |
Some Seward fans were worried about Wednesday night's game against Colby, not because they thought the game would be in doubt, but because the Lady Saints might overlook the 2-22 Lady Trojans with Saturday's battle with Hutchinson waiting on the horizon. It is hard to tell if the Lady Saints overlooked Colby, but they certainly didn't click on all cylinders en route to an 80-56 final score.
In front of what might have been the smallest Greenhouse crowd in recent memory, the Lady Saints got off to a good start, opening up a 10-2 lead after a Fabiana Monte three just three minutes into the game. However, unlike their first meeting, the Lady Trojans weren't ready to let Seward push them all over the court in this one. Colby scored six straight points to make it a 12-8 game and it wasn't until Alana Simon scored five straight for Seward that the Lady Saints pushed their lead to double digits at 23-13 with 11:04 left in the half. The teams traded baskets to 27-18 as the clock ticked under 7:00 to go and after Colby had cut it to seven with 4:30 remaining in the half, Kyndal Davis drove baseline and scored for Seward to make it 31-22 Lady Saints with 4:12 left. Colby just would not go away, hitting a three on their next trip down the floor to make it a six point game. The Lady Saints got back to back three's from Monte and Simon as they went to the half and took a 43-31 lead into the halftime break.
Both teams shot the ball well in the first half, Seward hit on 49% of their field goal attempts in the half while Colby had an unusually hot half, shooting 42% after coming into the game shooting just 31% as a team on the season. Simon led Seward with 12 first half points while Monte and Davis each added 8 for the Lady Saints.
As the second half got underway, it was more of the same as Seward scored at will, but allowed the Lady Trojans to stick around as the Lady Saints defense struggled to put the game away. It was 50-36 with under 17:00 to go and Colby cut the Lady Saints lead to just 11 as the 15:00 mark ticked by. Six straight Seward points gave the gals in green a 57-40 cushion with 13:11 to go and the Lady Saints remained up comfortably by 15 at the under 10:00 timeout. A pair of Davis free throws with 7:28 remaining gave the Lady Saints their largest lead to that point at 64-45 and Brianna Scott scored on a runner moments later to extend that lead to 69-46 with 4:37 left. With the game well in hand, the Lady Saints cruised to the finish line, finally taking down the pesky Lady Trojans 80-56 for their 22nd win of the 2013-2014 season.
After allowing Colby to shoot 42% in the first half, Seward held the Lady Trojans to just 6 of 27 shooting, 22% in the final 20 minutes. The Lady Saints shot 45% as a team in the win while Colby finished at just 33%. One key to the game for Seward was the turnover margin where the Lady Saints forced 21 Colby giveaways while committing a season low 8 themselves.
Davis led the Lady Saints with 17 points off the bench while fellow reserve Payton Fleming scored 13 in her 21 minutes of action. The pair played a large part in Seward's bench outscoring the Lady Trojans bench 32-3 in the game. Simon added 16 and 5 assists for the Lady Saints and Korina Chapman scored 8 and had 10 rebounds for Seward.
The Lady Saints are now 22-2 overall and 7-1 in Jayhawk West play while Colby falls to 2-22 overall and remains winless at 0-8 in conference action. The win sets up yet another battle between Seward and Hutchinson on Saturday in the Sports Arena. The Lady Saints enter the matchup with that 22-2 record and a #9 national ranking while Hutch is still unbeaten at 21-0 and is ranked #3 in the latest NJCAA polls. The game is an early tip at 5:30 in Hutchinson.