Saints Get 10th Win Before Break

In a matchup between complete opposites as the smaller and quicker Seward County Saints took on a big and rugged Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa team in the Greenhouse to wrap up the Pizza Hut Classic, it was Seward that got the best of a 72-45 affair to give the Saints their 10th win before the Holiday Break.

Seward got off to a 4-0 start and didn’t allow Tonkawa to score their first points until nearly 4 minutes into the game. The first half was a grind with neither team being able to get into a flow on offense and after taking a pair of 6 point leads, the Saints saw the Mavericks come back to make it a 3 point game at the break at 25-22. The Saints who were averaging over 90 points per game coming into the contest, shot just 32% from the field in the first half while Tonkawa shot 35% but turned the ball over 13 times. Deverell Biggs was the only bright spot for the Saints offensively in the first 20 minutes as he had 13 of Seward’s 25 points.

The second half was a completely different story again for Seward. The Saints pounded the basketball inside early and often and saw Daveon get going as well as their second leading scorer Irvin Hollinger. Seward gave themselves some space, scoring on their first 5 possessions of the half to go up 10 and they held Northern Oklahoma to just one field goal in the first 8:30 on the final period to build their lead up to 16 at the halfway point of the half. Seward really got things rolling down the stretch and stifled the Mavs offensive plan which made the Saints lead balloon in the game’s final minutes to over 30 before wrapping things up by 27 in the end 72-45. Seward hit on 19 of 29 shots in the second half, good for 66% and finished the game at 50% from the floor. Tonkawa shot just 32% in the second half and finished at 33%.

Individually it was Deverell Biggs pacing the Saints with 13 points while the sophomore guard also led Seward on the glass with 8 rebounds. Daveon Boardingham and Irvin Hollinger both had 11 in the win and Brice Jenkins had his second straight double digit effort with 10.

The Saints hit the break 10-2 with the win and will enjoy a well-deserved 2 ½ weeks off before heading to Chanute and the Neosho New Year’s Classic on December 30th and 31st where they will take on Johnson County and Neosho County on back to back nights.

Roy Allen