Saints On Point in Sixth Straight Win

n what was their final non-conference contest of the 2013-2014 season Saturday night in the Greenhouse, the Seward County Saints game against OnPoint Hoops Academy looked eerily similar to their 92-70 win one night previous against Murray State. A good start, followed by peaks and valleys throughout, before finally putting the nail in the coffin late in the game. This time the Saints turned in a 100-71 win over the prep school, ending the game on a 24-9 run to pick up their 10th win on the season.

Once again it was a high intensity, solid effort start for the Saints who jumped out to a 15-6 lead on OnPoint thanks in large part to their pressure defense and high paced offense that the prepsters couldn’t keep up with out of the gate. OnPoint battled back though and cut the Seward lead to 15-11 before a 5-1 Saints run opened things back up to eight at 20-12 with 12:13 to go in the first half. The run got Seward back on track and the Saints caught fire in the final 12 minutes of the period, outscoring OnPoint 38-17 to storm into the locker rooms on top 53-28. OnPoint had no answer for the Saints inside as Seward shot 80% on their two point attempts in the half and despite a 1 for 11 from three point land, still managed to shoot 58% from the floor in the period.

For the second straight night, the Saints came out of the break dead however. They let OnPoint hang around until midway through the half the prepsters were within 14 of the Saints after outscoring Seward 18-7 to start the half. Following a rash of timeouts and a show of emotion from Head Coach Bryan Zollinger during a technical foul, the Saints finally responded. Seward went on a 14-1 run to take their largest lead of the night at 74-47 with under 9:00 remaining. The Saints continued to keep the pressure on OnPoint and finished the game with a flurry, hitting the 100 point mark on an Evan Allen free throw late to come away with a 100-71 victory.

Seward shot 61% from the field in the game and 75% from inside the arc in the contest. OnPoint shot 38% from the field in the loss. Niem Stevenson led the Saints with 21 points on 7 of 11 shooting while Brian Bridgeforth notched his third career double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Secean Johnson pitched in 13 for Seward and Malcolm Hill-Bey and Evan Allen each reached double figures with 11 and 10 points respectively. The Saints bench outscored the OnPoint bench 32-17 in the game.

The Saints win their sixth straight as they roll into conference action and are now 10-6 on the season. They open up league play with two straight road trips to tough environments as they start at Garden City next Saturday for a 7:30 tip in the Perryman Center before going to Colby next Wednesday to take on the Trojans.

SEWARD COUNTY/ONPOINT ACADEMY BOX SCORE<http://www.scccsaints.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7357:1414-vs-onpoint-academy&catid=58:M%20Basketball&Itemid=175>