A Split at the Greenhouse

February 4, 2012

It was a tale of two games for Seward County fans Saturday night in the Greenhouse as the Lady Saints and Saints wrapped up a mini two game home stand with a Jayhawk West double header against Barton.

The 6^th ranked Lady Saints hoped to come out strong Saturday against the Lady Cougars after a rough showing in their last home outing against #2 Hutchinson. They did that, taking an early 9-0 lead, but that was the end of the positives for the gals in green. Seward’s lead was down to just two at 23-20 before the half as they managed to shoot just 22%. The Lady Saints clung to the lead early in the second half but Barton had their way on the offensive end when they were able to hang onto the ball. The Lady Cougars erased the Seward lead and took one of their own and never looked back. The Lady Saints had a number of chances inside but couldn’t capitalize and nothing fell from the outside as Barton built on their lead before going on to win 62-57 to complete the huge upset. Seward finished the game shooting just 29% and were 3 for 20 from three point land on the night while the Lady Cougars shot 52% in the second half and finished the game at 44%. Seward forced 29 Barton turnovers but wasn’t able to turn them into points. Just two Lady Saints reached double figures as Mariah Lee led Seward with 11 and Kayla Thomas scored 10. Blair Bloomfield, who came into the game averaging just 8.6 points and 5.0 rebounds per game for Barton broke out in a big way with 22 points and 10 rebounds.

Coming off of three straight subpar performances, it was hard to say how the #12 Seward Men were going to come out against #9 Barton in their second half opener. The Saints answered those questions very quick as the guys in green built an early lead and controlled the tempo throughout. The Saints offense was clicking early as they took a 15-9 lead and their defense which was so suspect in their recent slide was equally as impressive, holding down the region’s top scoring team to just 2 points through the first six minutes and 9 through the first 11. Four Seward points in the final minute of the half gave them a 10 point, 33-23 lead into the break. The second half was more Seward County as the Saints pushed their lead to 15 early in the half and never let Barton within 6 the rest of the way before closing on a 11-2 run to close the game, highlighted by yet another Trey Starks monster dunk and a two handed throw down from Daveon Boardingham in his return to lead the guys in green to a 77-59 win. Seward finished the game shooting 54% and held Barton to just 38% and 59 points, which was 12% under their season average and 32 points under their norm. Kaheem Ransom busted out for Seward after a quiet January with 22 points and 4 rebounds while Irvin Hollinger put in 16 points and 8 rebounds, and Starks scored 12 in 13 minutes of work.