Jay Daubenberger
Saturday afternoon the Seward County Saints men’s basketball team made the two-hour trip to Pratt, Kansas to take on the Beavers where a hot shooting Ryle Riddlespurger helped spark a flame for SCCC that Pratt was unable to put out as the Saints took the game 82-70 to end the first half of KJCCC action on a three-game win streak.
Scoring started early for both sides in the opening minute of action as Blessin Kimble connected with Mathias M’Madi on a back door cut with a no look pass that resulted in an easy layup, giving the Saints a 4-3 lead and Riddlespurger helped keep the lead alive with a knockdown three off the bench to put SCCC ahead 16-15. M’Madi blew past his defender to find an open spot at the free throw line to sink in a pull-up jumper and Big Lova followed it with a posturizing putback to keep the Saints ahead 27-25. From there the threes started coming from everywhere as Riddlespurger connected on a long range three from three states away and seconds later nails another one to increase the lead to nine and Xavier Alexander entered the contest and sunk one in of his own to put Seward County up 48-37 heading into halftime.
Carson Bennett kept the long-range trend going to open the second half a big three to put the Saints up by thirteen going into the under 16:00 media timeout and a few minutes later Amir Whitlock went coast to coast for an up and under layup to put SCCC ahead 64-50 and Pratt was unable to answer. Seward County pushed their lead out of reach and Jaden Martin put the exclamation point on it with a monster put back slam before another three from distance by Riddlespurger sealed the deal as the Saints grabbed the win 82-70 over the Beavers.
Riddlespurer led Seward County with 19 points including 5 made threes in just 17 minutes of action while Bennett added on 13 plus 12 from M’Madi.
SCCC improves to 6-12 on the 2023-24 season and after three straight wins in KJCCC action the Saints now sit at 4-8 in the Jayhawk standings. They will begin the second half of conference play when they face off with Cloud County on Wednesday with tip-off scheduled for 8:00 PM.