No. 10 Lady Saints Capture Jayhawk Championship on Sophomore Night

LIBERAL, Kan. – It was sophomore night in the Greenhouse Saturday night, and what better way to cap off their careers with Seward County than by clinching the Jayhawk Conference Championship outright in front of their home crowd, as the No. 10 Lady Saints knocked off Dodge City 98-39. 

The back-to-back conference titles is the first since 2004-05 and it marks the first outright conference championship since 2010.

Seward (26-3, 22-3) didn't lose any of their momentum from their historic 82-point victory on Wednesday.  The Lady Saints jumped out to a 10-0 lead before Addison Rowley could put the Conqs on board with two free-throws.  It took until five minutes into the game before Dodge City connected on their first basket, but the Lady Saints ended the quarter on a 14-2 run to take a 26-6 lead into the second.

A year ago, on sophomore night, Mollie Mounsey connected on record 10 three pointers.  On her own sophomore night, she finished with the second most three pointers in a game, going 8-for-10 from behind the arc.  Three of those came at the beginning of the second quarter to increase the Lady Saints lead to 28 points.  Seward held the Conqs to single digits in the second quarter, outscoring Dodge City 26-7 to take a 39-point lead into the break.

It was much of the same coming out of halftime, with Seward opening with a 10-0 lead.  As has been the case all year, Seward's suffocating defense prevented Dodge City from moving the ball, forcing the Conqs into 10 third quarter turnovers, as eight came from steals.  The points off turnover helped give the Lady Saints a 74-29 lead after three.

Kalen Green gave the Lady Saints their largest lead of the day, putting Seward up 63 points with just under three minutes to play to make it 96-33. Seward held on for a dominating win, 98-33, giving the sophomore's back-to-back Jayhawk Conference Championships.

"[The sophomores] have been the epitome of what a Lady Saint is," said Head Coach Toby Wynn, who captured his 4^th Jayhawk Championship Wednesday night. "If you were to write a definition as to what a person and player a Lady Saint is, [Valerie Caro, Vanessa Caro, Brennyn Seagler, Mounsey] truly exemplify that. The culture that they've created over the past few years have made it the greatest years of coaching in my life."

For the second straight game, every Lady Saint finished with points, with three finishing in double-figures.  Silvia Veloso and Seagler both finished with 10 points, while Mounsey ended her home career with a fitting 32 points, the same number on her jersey.

The ride isn't over for the sophomore, as they still have one more regular season game to play at Garden City on Monday (Feb. 26) before heading to Wichita for the Region VI Tournament next week.