Jay Daubenberger
It’s been a tough road for the Seward County Saints since beginning the second half of conference action and Wednesday’s matchup was not any easier as the Saints men’s basketball team made the trip out east to take on the number two ranked team in the NJCAA Barton where the Cougars knocked off SCCC 86-55 in Great Bend.

Barton started the contest off quickly as they jumped in front with a 10-3 lead with Seward County’s only bucket coming off a three by Mathias M’Madi. Dave Olaniyi snatched up a steal from Barton and drove down the court where he found Nathan Jones open for an alley-oop slam to cut the deficit down to five 14-9, but the Saints could not stop the Cougars from growing their lead further away by the minute. Olaniyi made his way to the rim for an up and under to keep the score in reach 26-16 with eight minutes to go but a 16-7 run by Barton resulted in Seward County trailing by nineteen 42-23 entering the halftime break.

SCCC couldn’t lift the lid ff the basket to start the second half as the Cougars sunk in three straight from beyond the arc to force the Saints into a timeout down 51-23 and Barton’s lead only grew from their as it eventually stood at 71-36 with eight minutes to go before a triple from Ryle Riddlespurger helped spark a small offensive run for the green and black. Olaniyi once again used his opponent’s size to his advantage as he made a hard nose layup through contact while converting the and-one to put the score at 78-46 before the game eventually wrapped up with Barton taking it 86-55 over Seward County.

M’Madi led the Saints in scoring with 17 points on the afternoon while Olaniyi added on another 12 points for SCCC.

Seward County now falls to 6-18 on the 2023-24 season with a conference record of 4-14 in the Jayhawk. They will turn around and head back to the Green House where they will face off against longtime rival Garden City on Saturday with tip-off scheduled for 4:00 PM on 107.5.  Conestoga Energy is the buyout sponsor.