Saints Burned by Nationally Ranked Blue Dragons

Liberal, Kansas – Wednesday night the Seward County Saints men's basketball team took on one of the hottest teams in the Jayhawk in the #17 Hutchinson Blue Dragons where the Saints fell behind early and could never recover, falling on the road to Hutchinson 76-42.

Looking to bounce back after losing their past six games, Seward County was able to strike first thanks to a steal by Nathan Jones that led to a knockdown three from Carson Bennett to take a 3-0 lead twenty seconds in. That was the only lead SCCC would have the rest of the game as the Blue Dragons would go on a 15-2 run to pull ahead 15-5 going into the under 12:00 media timeout before Mathias M'Madi was finally able to lift the lid on the basket for the Saints with a floater that put Seward County back to within nine at 18-9. Lovasoa Andriatsarafara used his size on the glass early to grab an offensive rebound for two easy second chance points and moments later his Madagascar counterpart M'Madi struck again with another easy drive to basket that put the score and added in two made free throws to send the Saints into halftime down by ten 30-20 against Hutchinson.

The second half started with the Blue Dragons continuing to grow their lead farther out before Bennett was able to connect with Jones on a fast break for a big man slam to put the score at 40-24 and a few moments later Jaden Martin used his length to score off a sky hook to help get some momentum going for the Saints. A turnaround jump shot from the left block by Big Lova helped get SCCC over the thirty-point mark while a pull up jumper by Amir Whitlock put the score at 64-34 with the Blue Dragons lead now at thirty. Dave Olaniyi sped past the Hutchinson defenders for an easy two points at the rim to get Seward County over forty points on the night and a last second bucket by Bennett put the final score at 76-42 with the Saints falling to the nationally ranked Blue Dragons.

Whitlock led Seward County with 13 points while M'Madi added on 9. The Saints could not find a way to score consistently, shooting only 28.8% from the field and was outrebounded 44-21 against the Blue Dragons.

Seward County drops their seventh straight game and fall to 3-12 on the 2023-24 season with a conference record of 1-8 in the KJCCC. They will now look towards a two-game homestead that starts on Saturday where the Saints will face off against the Colby Trojans inside of the Green House at 6:00 PM.