Offense Quiet As #10 Lady Saints Drop Second Straight

For 22 years, the Seward County Lady Saints dominated their rivalry with Garden City in the Greenhouse, not dropping a single game.  Wednesday night, the Lady Busters came to Liberal and made it two straight wins in the Greenhouse against Seward, knocking off the Lady Saints 57-56 thanks to a last second bucket from Zantaya Davis with just 2.1 left on the clock. 

Early on, it looked like Seward County was suffering a hangover effect against Garden City after falling to Hutchinson on Saturday night to all but end their Jayhawk West title hopes.  It was the Lady Busters, the team playing its third game in five days that came out the aggressors and Garden took a 7-4 lead after four minutes and extended it to 12-6 at the five minute mark.  Fabiana Monte got a hometown roll on a three for her only basket of the night to cut the Garden lead to 12-9 moments later, but the Busters scored the next four and led 16-9 with under 12:00 to go in the first half.  A big three from Rebekah Hatchard got Seward to within four at 21-17 with 8:31 to go in the half and the Lady Saints tied the game up at 21 as Shanise Brooks scored in the paint with 7:50 remaining.  Again though, the Lady Saints went cold on offense and Garden took advantage by taking a 28-23 lead at the 4:00 mark.  Seward closed the half outscoring Garden City 8-4, but it was still the Lady Busters who held the halftime lead 32-31. 

Seward shot just 33% in the half and turned the ball over 9 times while Garden City shot 44% and coughed it up 11 times.  Brooks led all scorers at the break with 10 while Hatchard was second in scoring for the Lady Saints with 6. Three Lady Saints who all averaged double figures coming into the game were held scoreless in the first period. 

Garden City extended their lead to six early in the second half 39-33, but after slow going on both ends, a banked in three for the Lady Saints kept them close, cutting the Buster lead to 43-41 at the 12:12 mark.  Once again it was Brooks tying the game, this time at 43 with 11:45 remaining, but Garden City answered right back with a bucket of their own to retake the lead 45-43.  Seward continued to get the benefit of good bounces as Korina Chapman banked home a three from the wing to give them their first lead since the opening minutes of the game 46-45, but their luck didn't last long as Garden City caught the Lady Saints in transition twice in their next three trips to go back in front 49-46.  Slowly Garden City began opening up their lead as the clock worked on their side.  With 5:24 left it was 53-48 Lady Busters.  However, Seward did just enough to keep themselves around and with 2:10 remaining they had the basketball, down just 55-53.  Both teams went empty in their next possession, but Chapman got to a loose ball and fed it to Simon next time Seward touched it to tie the game at 55 with 1:00 to go.  The Lady Saints got another stop and had a chance to get the last shot of the game with the score tied, but they went to the basket with 8 seconds left and Chapman was fouled and sent to the line.  A 70% free throw shooter on the season, Chapman continued a rough night at the line, hitting just one of two chances to put Seward up 56-55.  After a Garden City timeout, Buster point guard Shauqunna Collins knifed through the Seward defense the length of the court, getting to the paint where she dished off to teammate Zantaya Davis with 2.1 seconds left for a score to put the brown and gold in front 57-56.  After timeouts from both Seward and Garden City, the Lady Saints weren't even able to get the ball into the hands of a player for a chance at the buzzer as their inbounds pass was picked off and Garden City held on for the huge upset 57-56. 

What usually is a high powered Seward offense was shut down on their home floor to just 32% shooting on the night and 56 points, both their lowest output of the season.  Garden shot 44% from the field and shook off 25 turnovers to come away with the win. 

Brooks led Seward with 15 points while Chapman scored 14 and had 9 rebounds.  Fabiana Monte, Kyndal Davis, and Brianna Scott, who came into the game averaging a combined 34 points per game were limited to just 3 points on 1 of 15 shooting on the night. 

Seward drops their second straight game and falls to 22-4 on the season.  The Lady Saints are now 7-3 in Jayhawk West Conference play, where they remain in 2^nd place, but drop back to the pack a bit where they sit just one game in front of both Cloud County and Garden City at night's end.  Garden improves to 14-11 overall and 6-4 in Jayhawk West action where they now sit 3^rd. 

Next up for the Lady Saints is a trip to Dodge City where they take on a struggling but dangerous Lady Conqs team in United Wireless Arena Saturday night at 6:00.  Seward returns home next Wednesday when they host Barton at 6:00 in the Greenhouse.