Lady Saints Grind Out Win Over Coffeyville

Following a second half surge that led them to a relatively easy win Friday afternoon over Murray State, the Seward County Lady Saints found themselves in a much tougher battle Saturday in the Sports Arena as they took on fellow Jayhawk League opponent Coffeyville. Each team struggled to score early on and seven minutes in it was just 5-4 in favor of the Ravens. Seven straight points from Fabiana Monte gave the Lady Saints an 11-7 lead and Seward extended their lead to 22-15 later on in the half as Madison McLain got going. However, in the final 5:07 of the period, Coffeyville erased the Seward lead and at half the Red Ravens led 29-28. Both teams struggled to get into a flow in the first 20 minutes as both Seward and Coffeyville finished the half with more turnovers than field goals. A slow start to the second half for the Lady Saints gave Coffeyville their largest lead of the game at 34-28 two minutes in. The Seward deficit grew to eight later on in the half at 49-41 with 5:48 to go and with points at a premium, it wasn’t looking good for the gals in green. Thats when a pair of freshman and the Lady Saints leader took things over. Driving hard to the basket, McLain and Ricquia Jones got to the free throw line on back to back posessions and knocked all of their foul shots down to make it a four point game. After back to back defensive stops, the two did it again, this time cashing in layups on drives to the basket to tie the game at 49 with 1:59 remaining. McLain’s was also fouled on her drive and score and knocked down her free throw chance to give Seward their first lead of the second half at 50-49. As Coffeyville’s scoring drought hit 5:00, the Lady Saints pushed their lead to 53-49 on three straight Monte free throws with just 31 seconds left. With Coffeyville forced to foul with time running out, Jones and McLain each made a pair of free throws and as improbable as it looked late in the second half, the Lady Saints came out on top with a 57-53 win at the final horn. McLain and Monte combined for 40 points in the win, McLain going for a career high 23 and Monte 17 in her second straight strong game. Marta Oledzka effected the game on the inside despite managing just two points as she finished with 11 rebounds and 4 blocked shots for Seward.

The Lady Saints improve to 8-3 on the season with their third straight win while Coffeyville falls to 3-7. Seward will have the week off before taking on Northeastern and Arkansas Baptist next weekend in the Pizza Hut Classic in the Greenhouse on B107.5 and kscbnews.net.

Roy Allen