Lady Saints Come From Behind in Opening Day Win
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Tabor JV | 12 | 12 | 20 | 24 | 68 |
|
Seward County Community College | 2 | 17 | 17 | 35 | 71 |
It wasn't pretty, but in the end, the #8 Seward County Lady Saints will take the win, coming from behind to knock off Tabor JV 71-68 in their 2015 season opener Friday afternoon in an empty Hutchinson Sports Arena.
On the heels of a 30 win campaign in 2014-2015 and a trip to the Sweet 16 of the NJCAA National Tournament, Seward had high expectations coming into the 2015-2016 season on Friday. They quickly realized that hype alone would not get them to where they wanted to be against Tabor JV on Friday as the Blue Jays second squad wasted no time in bombarding Seward in the first quarter to take a 12-2 lead after 10 minutes of play.
The Lady Saints bounced back with a much better quarter in the second, outscoring Tabor 17-12 to cut the Jay lead to 24-19 at the break.
The halftime break wasn't enough to get the Lady Saints back on track as the third quarter began, as Seward allowed 20 points to Tabor in the period, allowing the Blue Jays to extend their lead to 44-36 at the end of three.
With their backs to the wall, things started to click for the Lady Saints in the fourth and final quarter. Seward cut the Tabor lead to four with just over 5:00 to go in the game and tied the game up moments later at 57. The contest remained deadlocked at 63-63 with under a minute to go when Seward put together a furious push to the finish line, scoring eight points in the final 41.8 seconds to come away with a 71-68 victory over the Jays.
After a dreadful 23% shooting in the first half for Seward, the Lady Saints hit on 58% in the second to finish the game at 41% overall. The Lady Saints were sloppy with the ball with a young backcourt, turning it over 25 times, but limited Tabor to just 12 points off of those turnovers. Seward forced 28 Blue Jay giveaways and parlayed those into 14 points on the night.
Axelle Bernard had a huge opener for Seward, scoring a career high 21 and pulling down 10 rebounds in her ninth career double-double. Bernard also narrowly missed a triple-double with seven steals in the win. Daniela Galindo shrugged off a tough shooting night to finish with 13 points and eight assists for the Lady Saints while Tiani White reached double figures with 11 in her Seward debut.
The Lady Saints win their season opener for the 24th straight season. Seward will now take on North Central Missouri Saturday afternoon at 1:30 in Hutchinson after the Pirates dropped an 85-49 decision to Hutchinson Friday night.