Grymek's Career Day Leads Seward Past Pratt
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Seward County Community College (7-0, 5-0) | 21 | 14 | 27 | 17 | 79 |
|
Pratt Community College (1-8, 0-5) | 17 | 17 | 11 | 21 | 66 |
Most of the Seward County Lady Saints had somewhat of a Thanksgiving hangover on Saturday afternoon as they traveled to the Beaverdome in Pratt to take on a struggling Beaver club. Joanna Grymek was not in the majority there as the 6'8 sophomore scored 35 points, had 16 rebounds, and blocked 6 shots to power Seward past Pratt 79-66 to keep their record spotless on the year.
Everything going into the Lady Saints game on Saturday against Pratt pointed towards a blowout win for Seward. The Lady Saints entered the afternoon as the lone unbeaten in the Jayhawk Conference while Pratt entered the lone winless team in the league. However, that premonition would not come to fruition Saturday as Pratt gave the Lady Saints all they wanted and then some early on as the Beavers held a 12-11 lead over #20 Seward midway through the first quarter of action. The Lady Saints were able to regain the lead and powered by the play of Joanna Grymek on the inside and the slashing of Clitan de Sousa, took a 21-17 lead at the end of 10 minutes of play.
Pratt quickly tied the score back up early in the second and retook a lead of their own midway through the quarter at 32-31. Gryemek and de Sousa continued to have their way, but nobody else on the Seward roster could get going and therefore at the break, the Lady Saints led by just one, 35-34. The pair finished the first half with a combined 30 points for Seward while Mollie Mounsey added the other five. No other Lady Saint scored in the half.
It was more of what fans expected as the second half began with Seward immediately opening up their lead to nine on a three from Mounsey in the corner. All of the Lady Saints scoring was still between Grymek, de Sousa, and Mounsey until the 4:00 mark of the third quarter when Neidy Ocuane put one in the basket to give Seward their fourth scorer of the afternoon. The Lady Saints finished with 27 points in the quarter, opening up their biggest lead of the game to that point at 62-45.
Seward continued to go inside to Grymek, and for good reason, as the sophomore dumped in back to baskets to tie, and then surpass her past career high with her 30th and 31st point of the game to put the Lady Saints up 19. Pratt made one final push late in the fourth, but it was far too little and too late as Seward finally dribbled out the clock to put the final touches on a 79-66 win to improve to 7-0 on the year.
The Lady Saints earn the win despite shooting just 37% from the field and turning it over 21 times. Grymek put together a monster afternoon, scoring a career high 35 points and tying her career high with 16 rebounds, while also blocking 6 shots in the game. De Sousa finished with 21 points and 9 rebounds in the win while Mounsey scored 13 despite a slow shooting day.
Seward remains unbeaten on the year at 7-0 while pushing their Jayhawk Conference record to a league best 5-0. Pratt's struggles continue as they fall to 1-8 overall and 0-5 in league play.
Things will get quite a bit tougher for the Lady Saints in their next outing as they take on #17 Cowley in Arkansas City on Wednesday in a rematch of the 2016 Region VI Championship game that ended Seward's season a year ago.