No. 8 Lady Saints Quiet the Thunderbirds in Concordia

LIBERAL, Kan – The No. 8 Seward County women's basketball team displayed a great example of team basketball on Saturday night, defeating Cloud County 78-55 inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium in Concordia.

The Lady Saints (5-0, 3-0) started off hot, opening up with a seven point, 9-2 lead in the first three and a half minutes. Seward moved the ball around extremely well in the first quarter, finishing with nine assists on all nine of their field goals.

Seward shot 50% from the field in the first quarter, in large part because of their ball movement. They also connected on 40% of their deep shots.

The second quarter didn't start as well for the Lady Saints, having to wait until the 6:45 mark to score their first basket, with a Vanessa Caro free throw.  A Caro three-pointer on the ensuing position gave the Lady Saints a 26-15 lead. Seward continued to extend their lead the remainder of the quarter, pushing it to 12 points at halftime with the score being 34-22.

The Lady Saints shot 44.8% from the floor in the first half on 13 of 29 shooting. Their defense limited the T-Birds to just 24.2% from the field and forced them to miss all seven of their three-point attempts.

Seward came storming out of the locker rooms to start the third quarter scoring 12 points in the first three minutes.  Brennyn Seagler was responsible for seven of the points. The Lady Saints extended their lead to 18 at the end of the quarter with another Seagler layup.

The Thunderbirds opened up the final quarter of play with four quick points in the first 30 seconds before Amy Scott hit a floater to end the run. That would be as close as Cloud County would get to overcoming their deficit, as the Seward County kept up their offensive prowess, extending their lead to 23, winning 78-55.

The Lady Saints shot 54.2% for the game and 40.6% from behind the arc, while holding the T-Birds to 25% from the floor and just 6.3% from deep.  Cloud County hit just one out of their 16 attempts from behind the arc.

Seward County displayed a great team performance all game, finishing with 25 assists and 48 bench points. Four Lady Saints finished with double-digit points – Seagler (18), Mollie Mounsey (17), Vanessa Caro (12) and Valerie Caro (11).

The Lady Saints will end their road-stretch at 6 p.m. on Tuesday (Nov. 21) as they travel to Great Bend to take on Barton.