Seward Beats DCCC for 19th Straight Time

The Greenhouse has not been a friendly place over the years to the Dodge City Conquistadors and that continued to hold true Saturday night as the #21 Seward County Lady Saints cruised to an 81-61 victory over the Conqs to notch their 25th straight win in Liberal and 19th straight win overall against the Jayhawk Conference rivals to the North.

The Lady Saints took control of the game from the opening tip and never looked back on Saturday in front of a huge Greenhouse crowd. Seward scored the first six points of the game and after a Dodge bucket, scored nine more in a row to open up a 15-2 lead out of the gates. A three from Samm Ashida in her first career start gave the Lady Saints their largest lead of the first quarter at 19-5 and the two teams traded baskets in the final minute to make it a 21-7 game in favor of Seward at the end of one.

Dodge came out hungry in the second, scoring the first seven points of the period to cut the Lady Saints lead in half at 21-14, but a three from Erin Richardson sparked the gals in green and moments later they stretched their lead back to double digits at 31-18 with 4:22 to go in the half. Seward went to their inside game late in the half, getting a pair of scored from Joanna Grymek and another from Axelle Bernard to take a 39-27 lead into the break at half.

Again in the third, the Conqs were the aggressors, for the second time, cutting the Lady Saints lead back to a touchdown at 41-34 two minutes in. But as they did in the second, the Lady Saints settled down and slowly built their cushion back to double digits. Another Grymek bucket made it an 11 point game with 6:22 left in the quarter and after an offensive rebound and score from Manuela Fungate, the birthday girl Leslie Speer got into the action, hitting a three from the top of the key to open up a 54-36 lead for Seward. Bu the end of the third quarter it was all Seward County as the Lady Saints took a 65-43 lead to the fourth and final quarter.

Both teams started slow in the fourth with the first field goal coming 2:52 in as Axelle Bernard scored and was fouled to put the Lady Saints up 68-45. Dodge didn’t get their first bucket until 4:05 in, but the game was well in hand by then. The Lady Saints bench kept the game in hand as the fourth quarter wound down with another three from Ashida putting the cherry on top of the cake as Seward went on to win 81-61.

Seward shot 48% in the win while holding Dodge City to 34% shooting and forcing 22 Conq turnovers. Grymek played big on both sides for Seward, scoring 18 points on 8 of 11 shooting while also blocking a season high 8 shots on the defensive end. Bernard racked up yet another double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds while both Tiani White and Clitan de Sousa reached double figures with 10.

The Lady Saints improve to 16-6 on the year with the victory and bump their Jayhawk Conference record to 8-4. Dodge City falls to 16-6 while their conference mark goes to 6-5.

It will be a short turn around for the Lady Saints as they hit the court once again on Monday when they make the trip to Colby for a 6:00 tip in the Community Building against a Lady Trojans team looking for their first conference win of the year.

#21 SEWARD COUNTY/DODGE CITY BOX SCORE<http://www.sewardsaints.com/sports/wbkb/2015-16/boxscores/20160130_2t08.xml?view=boxscore>

Roy Allen