#16 Seward Smothers #19 Butler in 35 Point Win
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Butler Community College (11-3) | 9 | 12 | 8 | 11 | 40 |
|
Seward County Community College (9-2) | 15 | 22 | 16 | 22 | 75 |
The #16 Seward County Lady Saints put on a show in their Jayhawk Conference home opener Wednesday night in the Greenhouse against the visiting and #19 Butler Lady Grizzlies, jumping out to a 16 point lead at the half before blowing them away in the second half to come away with a dominating 75-40 win to improve to 9-2 on the year.
It was Butler getting out to the early lead on the Lady Saints 6-2, but Seward fired back, scoring the next nine points in the game, including five from Axelle Bernard to give the gals in green their first lead of the night at 11-6. A basket by Joanna Grymek on the inside with under a minute left in the first quarter put Seward up six and that is where they finished the period, on top of Butler 15-9.
It was the Bernard show as the second quarter got underway as the Lady Saints sophomore forward scored the first seven points of the quarter to open the Seward lead to 22-9 before Grymek took over inside stretching the Seward advantage to 25-9 with a three point play. A three by Erin Richardson gave Seward the first 13 points of the second quarter and the route was on. Bernard and Grymek continued to be unstoppable in the paint for the Lady Saints and after one half of play it was Seward 37 and Butler 21.
Bernard and Grymek combined for 29 of Seward's 37 first half points while Butler had just one player score more than three in the half. The Lady Saints shot 55% as a team while holding the Grizzlies to 32% shooting and forcing Butler into 10 turnovers.
Seward continued to build on their lead as the second half began, opening things up to 21 on a basket inside by Manuela Fungate with 3:40 to go in the third. Grymek then scored on back to back plays inside to make it 50-25 Seward County and a three from Bernard from the corner opened up a 53-25 lead on the Grizzlies. Butler scored the final four of the quarter but after three it was all Seward County 53-29.
As they did in the second quarter, Seward came out ready to go in the fourth, scoring the first eight points of the period in the quarters first 2:08 to balloon their advantage to 61-29. Tiani White got into the act with five straight Lady Saints points to make it 66-30 and Daniela Galindo and Samm Ashida connected from the outside to give Seward their largest lead of the night at 72-31 with 3:30 to go. Butler scored 9 of the final 12 points in the game, but it was far too little too late as the Lady Saints put their home crowd on their feet with a 75-40 win for their second Jayhawk Conference victory in three tries this season.
As impressive as their 53% shooting was on the night, Seward's defense was even better. The Lady Saints held the Grizzlies to just five second half field goals and 19% shooting to make Butler finish the game shooting just 26% from the field. Grymek led Seward with a perfect night from the floor, going 10 for 10 shooting, good for 21 points while also hauling down a team best 7 rebounds in the win. Bernard also had a solid night for the Lady Saints, falling just one point short of her career high with 20 points and 7 boards.
#16 Seward County improves to 9-2 overall and 2-1 in Jayhawk Conference action with the victory while #19 Butler drops to 11-3 and 1-2 on the year.
Next up for the Lady Saints is their final home game of the first semester as they host the Pratt Lady Beavers in a 6:00 tip Saturday night in the Greenhouse. Free tickets are available courtesy of our buyout sponsor, Billy's/AYR Lanes, at their Liberal location.