Jay Daubenberger
Liberal, Kansas – Shooting struggles continued for the Seward County Lady Saints women’s basketball team after shooting under 14% from the field a few days ago, the Lady Saints were only able to improve their percentage to 21.5 in a 77-48 loss to the visiting Barton Cougars with no SCCC player scoring more than 10 points in the matchup.
The first quarter of action was a back-and-forth contest between Seward County and Barton as SCCC opened the game with a big three from the wing by Xoe Rosalez and a few possessions later Jamia Carter found Alianna Colon wide open on the fast break for another three to cut the Cougars lead down to four at 13-9. A banked in three from Carter and a strong post move by Allie Myers allowed the Lady Saints to come within one before Naomi Aragonez stepped to the stripe and sunk in a pair of free throws to put Seward County up 16-15 after the first ten minutes of action.
After managing to find ways to score through the first quarter, the second saw the return of the Lady Saints shooting slump as with Barton beginning the quarter on an 11-0 run to retake the lead 26-16 four minutes in before Naomi Aragonez was able to pump fake her defender and side step for a corner three that closed the gap back to ten with the Cougars holding firm up 29-19. Defense turned into offense for SCCC as Ari Gordon came off the bench and immediately made an impact defensively for a steal that led to an easy layup by Kayla Peoples to stay in reach at 37-27 going into the halftime break.
De Ja Vu struck in the opening minutes of the third when Barton once again emerged from the break with an 11-0 run to open the gap to 48-27 and force Seward County into a timeout. Rosalez tried to create a spark to ignite the Lady Saints flame with her second triple of the game, but the Cougars quickly extinguished that spark with a three of their own to enter the fourth ahead 60-32 over Seward County.
Starting the fourth was much like the previous two quarters with the only basket being made for SCCC in the first four minutes was a layup by Myers before the final media timeout which put the score at 60-34. Colon tore away an offensive rebound for a put back score and Aragonez once again put her defender on skates for a step-back three to put the score at 74-43 Barton before finally wrapping up the afternoon with a 77-48 loss to the Cougars.
Aragonez led SCCC in scoring with 10 points while Colon added 9 points to go with 9 rebounds for a team high.
Seward County now falls to 5-4 on the 2023-24 season and now sits at 2-4 in Jayhawk conference action. They will begin a three-game stretch to finish December before entering their short winter break when they face off with Northeastern on Wednesday on the road with tip-off scheduled for 6:00 PM before returning home to take on Odessa and Kilgore in the Christmas Classic.
