Davis' 30 Leads Seward to Historic National Tournament Victory
| Final | 1 | 2 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Lake Region State College - ND | 24 | 33 | 57 |
|
Seward County Community College | 45 | 44 | 89 |
The Seward County women's basketball program has played in their fair share of NJCAA National Tournament games in Salina's Bicentennial Center, but none, have ended the way the Lady Saints opening round game Monday night did. In their first round matchup with North Dakota's Lake Region State, Seward got a career high 30 points from sophomore Kyndal Davis, leading the way to an 89-57 win, marking their largest margin of victory in Lady Saints program history at the Big Dance.
Playing in their first NJCAA National Tournament in eight seasons, the 12th seeded Lady Saints got off to an understandably slow start against the 21st seed in the tournament Lake Region State. It took 1:24 for the games first point to be scored as Seward's Jasmine Jordan knocked down a free throw to make it 1-0 Lady Saints and Brooklyn Artis scored at the rim at the 18:01 mark for the first field goal as Seward led 3-0. Thankfully, Seward held a high scoring Lake Region team without a single point until the 16:41 mark of the half to make it a 5-2 game and it remained that way until Artis hit a step back three to make it 8-2 with 14:33 remaining in the period. Lake Region closed it to a one point game with 10:44 left in the half before a 10-0 Lady Saints run, spurred by six points from Kyndal Davis, opened Seward's largest lead of the game at 22-11 in just 2:30. Davis continued to have her way on the offensive end of the floor, helping the Lady Saints blow their lead wide open until finally it crested at 38-17 with 3:00 left in the half. Davis hit her second three pointer of the half in the final minute of play and the Lady Saints stormed to the locker room with a 45-24 advantage over the Lady Royals.
Davis led Seward with 21 first half points while Artis finished with 13 in the first 20 minutes for the Lady Saints. Seward shot 37% from the field while Lake Region shot 34%, but the difference came at the free throw line where the Lady Saints cashed in on 15 of 16 attempts, good for 94% while the Lady Royals managed just 3 trips, making only 1.
Lake Region made a small push to start the second half, but it was short lived as the Lady Saints recovered thanks in part to another deuce by Artis followed by a steal and score from Rebekah Hatchard to put them back up 21 early in the period. A three from Daniela Galindo later in the half started a quick 8-0 run for the Lady Saints to give them their biggest lead of the game at 65-40. Seward cruised from there. A jumper from Davis continued her big night and put the Lady Saints up 29 and as the Lady Saints emptied their bench, they were able to keep the lead growing, until finally it was its biggest of the game at 83-51 with 3:48 to go. That would be the final margin of victory for the Lady Saints as in front of a spirited bunch of Seward County faithful, the gals in green heard the familiar clap down in the final minute as they went on to win 89-57.
Seward got a career high 30 points from Davis in the win who finished 12 for 19 from the field and also had 6 rebounds and 5 steals. Artis also showed up ready to go as the lefty poured in 23, helped by a perfect 10 for 10 night at the free throw line. In a spot start, Jordan finished with a career high 13 rebounds to lead the way for the Lady Saints on the glass. Seward shot 41% from the field overall while holding Lake Region to 35%. The Lady Saints did major damage at the free throw line in the game, going 29 for 32 at the stripe, good for 91%, their best mark at the line since February 8th of 2013 when they shot 94% in a win over Pratt. All nine dressed Seward players got action in the game and eight of the nine scored multiple points in the win.
The 32 point victory marked the Lady Saints program record for margin of victory at a National Tournament game. Seward improves to 28-5 on the year while Lake Region ends their 2015 season at a very respectable 26-8.
Seward advances to the NJCAA National Tournament Sweet 16 where next up is a Tuesday night battle with 5th seeded and 30-2 Walters State. The Lady Saints and Senators will tip off in the last game of the night at the Bicentennial Center at 8:30 with a days rest and a trip to the quarterfinals on the line.
