Lady Saints Win 48th Straight Over Pratt

Wednesday night against Colby it was a big second half propelling the 7th ranked Seward County Lady Saints to a Jayhawk West Conference victory, Saturday night at home against Pratt it was their first half heroics leading them to an 84-69 victory over the visiting Lady Beavers. Seward raced out to a 52-25 halftime lead before holding off a late charging Beaver bunch to win their 48th straight game against Pratt and in the process pick up their 10th Jayhawk West win to extend that streak to 20 consecutive years.

In front of their home crowd the Lady Saints started out on a tear Saturday night, jumping out to a 21-8 lead in the first five minutes of the game as Rebekah Hatchard and Brooklyn Artis each rained in a pair of three pointers for the gals in green. Seward continued to pour it on Pratt, going up 24-8 on another three from Artis and stretching their lead to 26-8 as Kyndal Davis scored in transition. The Lady Saints were relentless and Pratt had no answer for the Seward offensive attack. The Lady Saints went up by 20 for the first time on a high arching three from Daniela Galindo and pushed their lead all the way to 27 at 52-25 at the halftime whistle.

Seward shot 48% from the floor and were 9 for 14 from the three point line in the period. Pratt managed just 31% shooting and were 1 for 8 from three. Artis led Seward with 14 first half points while Galindo chipped in 10.

The Lady Saints scored the first points of the second half to take their largest lead of the night at 54-25, but slowly the Lady Beavers came alive from there. As Pratt’s intensity turned up, the Lady Saints lead began to shrink and by the midway point of the second half Seward’s advantage was under 20 for the first time since early on at 61-42. A 5-0 Seward burst out of the media timeout put them back up 24 and later on Galindo gave the Lady Saints a 79-53 lead on a run out layup to put the game out of reach. Pratt caught fire late in the game and made the final score respectable, holding Seward to just one field goal while outscoring the Lady Saints 16-5 in the final 4:57. However, in the end, the Seward lead was just too big as the Lady Saints hung on to win 85-69 to defeat Pratt for the 48th consecutive time since the 1991 season.

Seward’s offense was clicking in the win as the Lady Saints shot 46% from the field overall and were even better from deep, shooting 50% as a team. The Lady Saints also cashed in on their free throw attempts, shooting 88% on 25 tries while Pratt managed to shoot just 12 free throws in the contest. For the third straight game, Galindo set a career high, this time in points with 24 as the freshman finished 8 for 12 from the floor and 4 for 6 from the three point line. Artis had herself a big game as well, finishing with 22 points and 5 assists for Seward while Davis racked up a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

The Lady Saints improve to 22-2 overall on the year and now have a two game cushion in 2nd place in the conference standings at 10-1. The 10th conference victory means that Seward has now won double digit Jayhawk West games in 20 straight seasons. Pratt drops to 13-11 overall and 3-7 in league action with the defeat.

It will be a short turnaround for the gals in green as they make their longest road trip of the conference season in just two days when they hit the asphalt for the lengthy drive to Concordia Monday to take on Cloud County.

#7 SEWARD COUNTY/PRATT BOX SCORE<http://www.sewardsaints.com/sports/wbkb/2014-15/boxscores/20150207_bfhn.xml>

Roy Allen

Game audio: