GAMEDAY IN THE GREENHOUSE: Seward County vs. Pratt Women's Basketball

GAME PREVIEW:

     It's the opening round of the 2016 Region VI Tournament tonight in the Greenhouse as the #13 seed Pratt Lady Beavers come to town to take on the #4 seed Seward County Lady Saints.  The winner of tonight's game will advance to the quarterfinal round on Tuesday in Park City where they will take on the winner of the Butler/Allen game at 7:00 at Hartman Arena while the loser will call it a year. 

     The Lady Saints have put together one of the most dominating streaks the game has ever seen in a head to head matchup, coming into tonight's contest having beat the Lady Beavers 49 straight times dating all the way back to the 1991 season.  There have been some close calls lately though with Pratt sneaking up to within seven on Seward in 2013 and eight two years prior, but couldn't pull through for the upset. 

      The Lady Saints and Lady Beavers hooked up for their only meeting this season all the way back on December 12th to close out the first semester of Jayhawk Conference action.  Seward controlled the pace from the tip in that one, rolling to an 89-49 win behind a 50% shooting night and  double figure scoring from four different players including Daniela Galindo who led the way with 20.  In that one, Seward was hot and Pratt was not as the Lady Saints shot 44% from the three point line, hitting 14 of 32 from deep while the Beavers managed to find the bucket on under 30% of their attempts and just 4 of 23 from long range. 

      Seward rolls into Region VI Tournament action tonight as the #4 seed in the week long tourney after five straight wins to close the regular season.  The Lady Saints finished 13-5 in Jayhawk Conference action, good for a runner-up finish, including a 110-47 route in their conference finale over Colby, the most points they have put up in a conference game since the 2002 National Championship season.  The length of the Seward defense has been suffocating to opposing offenses this season as the Lady Saints finished conference play as the top points allowed (56.1) and field goal percentage (30.7%) defense in the league. 

     After getting out to a good start in 2015, 2016 has been a struggle for the Lady Beavers who come into tonight losers of  6 in a row and 11 of their last 12 to draw the #13 seed for the tournament.  Pratt's problems come largely on the offensive end where they averaged just 58.5 points per game in conference play, ranking 12th out of 14 teams this season.