No. 15 Lady Saints open 2020 with win at Coffeyville

COFFEYVILLE, Kan. – Leilani Augmon had 14 points, 11 rebounds and five steals and Vanda Cuamba added a game-high 19 points and seven rebounds to power the No. 15 Seward County Community College women's basketball team to a 66-62 victory over Coffeyville Community College on Saturday. The Lady Saints have won five of their last six games, improving to 10-3 overall and 5-0 in the Jayhawk West.

Augmon had a big third quarter to help the Lady Saints turn a 30-28 halftime deficit into a 50-40 advantage heading into the fourth. The 5-10 freshman from San Jose, California, scored 11 points, nine on three-pointers, during a 15-2 run to help Seward open a 43-32 lead with 3:58 remaining in the third.

The Lady Saints started the final stanza with a 7-0 spurt behind a three-pointer from Karolina Szydlowska and buckets by Ayanna Smith and Cuamba, extending its margin to 17 points, 57-40, with under eight minutes to go in the game.

Then things got interesting as the Red Ravens went on a 19-5 burst to slash the lead to three points at 62-59 with 1:31 remaining. Cuamba answered with a layup to give the Lady Saints a five-point advantage at the 1:18 mark, but Seward turned the ball over twice and kept Coffeyville in the game. After the Red Ravens cut the deficit to two at 64-62 with 13 seconds remaining, Cuamba sealed the victory by grabbing a rebound and hitting two free throws for the final margin.

Szydlowska added 15 points and 10 rebounds and Tianna Johnson chipped in with 10 points for the Lady Saints, who were red-hot from the three-point line on 10-24 shooting. Szydlowska made five treys, Augmon hit four and Gina Ballesteros had one.

Faith Simpson had 13 points and McKenzie Murrel-Patton and Kristi Stephens scored nine each for Coffeyville, which fell to 13-3 overall and 3-3 in the Jayhawk West East.

The Lady Saints got off to a slow start and trailed by as many as nine in the first quarter before trimming the deficit to 14-8 after one. Seward ended the second quarter on an 11-8 run and was only down by two points at the half.

The Lady Saints play their first home game of 2020 against Independence at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at the Greenhouse.