No. 15 Lady Saints to clash with No. 2 Lady Texans once again

LIBERAL, Kan. – What will the No. 15 Lady Saints basketball team be looking for when it takes to the road to play the No. 2 South Plains Lady Texans at 5:45 p.m. on Friday? Some revenge, some redemption and some experience.

The contest between the schools was not even supposed to take place this year. The teams wanted to play, but could not get together due to scheduling issues.

(Lady Texans Head Coach Cayla Petree) and I wanted to play again," said Austin Mefford, head coach of the Lady Saints. "It's a game that needs to be played every year with both programs in the top 10,  year in and year out. We couldn't get a date early in the year before the season started with our conference starting so early and they were playing home games at the same time."

But Seward had a scheduled tournament cancelled and the teams tried again to get together and this time the two were able to connect.

"(Petree) cancelled a game to play us," Mefford said. "She made it happen."

The teams played twice last season with the Lady Saints coming away with the win at home early in the season, but then losing to the Lady Texans in the second round of the NJCAA Tournament.

"The sophomores (Karolina Szydlowska, Aquila Mucubaquire and Vanda Cuamba) will have a chance at revenge, but there are a lot of new faces (with 10 freshmen) who don't know South Plains," Mefford said, adding that this game will give the team a chance to prove that it can play with the top teams.

"This is a big time opportunity to prove ourselves after (the Midland WNIT)," Mefford said. "We failed in Midland. (The team dropped two of three games in the tournament). We didn't play as we needed to and this is a chance to redeem ourselves. It's going to be tough." 

South Plains is ranked second in the nation at 11-0 overall and have three sophomores, who have signed with Division I schools next year. Sarah Shematsi will play LSU while Caroline Germond and Channel Noah will head to TCU.

The Lady Texans are averaging 87 points per game while holding opponents to 47 points and under 30 percent shooting from the field. Shematsi leads South Plains in scoring, averaging 13.6 points.

Seward County is coming off an 85-55 drubbing of Allen Community College on Wednesday at the Greenhouse to improve to 3-0 in the Jayhawk West and 8-2 overall.

Szydlowska (12.1 points and 6.6 rebounds) and Cuamba (11.5 points and 6.4 rebounds) lead the Lady Saints, who are averaging 78.5 points. Freshmen Tianna Johnson (11 points) and Leilani Augmon (10.1 points) are also scoring in double figures for Seward.

Against South Plains, Seward will be facing another ranked opponent, its fifth in its last six games. But Mefford looks at these games as building blocks for the future.

"This is another game to get ready for the national tournament, to get ready for the region tournament, to get ready to play Hutch, to get ready to play Butler," he said.  "We have a lot of freshmen. If they can learn how to go on the road and play good teams and learn from that, it gives us the chance to be really good. Later this year when we have to go to Hutch, (we will have been in that situation). They've been to a top five place on the road and played (in that environment.)"

Seward will be in an unusual position heading into the game – underdog.

"It's the first time in two years that we're going into a game as the underdog," Mefford said. "It hasn't happened often. It's a big-time game, but the pressure is off. They're the favorite and we're the underdog. We're going to try and steal one on the road.

"It's a fun game, a fun environment," he added. "Hopefully they'll have a good crowd and it should be exciting. It's a learning experience. It's a good opportunity. It's not every day you get to play a top two team on the road."

There is no radio broadcast, but you can watch the game on sewardsaints.com.