Seward Rides Big First Half to Win Over Barton

The Seward County Lady Saints jumped out to a big early lead in front of a big Homecoming crowd in the Greenhouse Saturday night and never looked back, completing the season sweep of the Barton Lady Cougars with an 82-65 win behind a career high 27 points from sophomore forward Axelle Bernard.

The Lady Saints took control from the opening tip, getting a three pointer from Daniela Galindo on their first possession to start a 9-0 run over the first 1:57 of the game. After Barton picked up the next four points, Seward went streaking again, scoring eight straight to push their early lead to 17-4. The Lady Saints added one to their cushion in the final six minutes, holding a 25-11 lead after one quarter of action.

Seward held Barton without a single point for the first 3:14 of the second quarter, opening their lead to 29-11 in the process. After Barton closed to within 11, the Lady Saints got another big three from Galindo to stretch their lead back to 14 and they finished the half on a 10-2 run to blow their lead open to 46-24 at the break.

Seward shot 53% in the field half, getting double digit scoring halves from Axelle Bernard, Galindo, and Tiani White. Barton shot just 28% and had 7 turnovers to go with just 8 first half field goals.

The Lady Saints remained well in control throughout the duration of the third quarter, getting four straight points from Bernard midway through to keep their lead at 23 before a mini cold stretch at the end of the period saw Barton cut into their lead by three as they made it 65-45 with one quarter to go.

Early in the fourth quarter, the Lady Saints took their biggest lead of the night at 76-50 as Bernard sunk a pair of free throws, but as Seward went to their bench, the fanatic Barton defense feasted, scoring eight straight points to make it 79-63 with 1:32 left. Samm Ashida hit from downtown to break the Barton momentum and all the Cougars got was a last second putback which was too little too late as the Lady Saints finished off an 82-65 win.

Bernard scored a career high of 27 in the win for the Lady Saints, also pulling down 10 rebounds to wrap up her fifth double-double in the past six games. White scored 16 for the Lady Saints on 5-13 shooting and Galindo added 14 on 4-9 from the field.

With the win, the Lady Saints improve to 18-7 overall and pick up their 10th Jayhawk Conference win for the 20th straight season where they now sit 10-5. The Seward win, coupled with a Coffeyville loss means that the Lady Saints are now tied in the loss column with the Red Ravens and if they remained tied, Seward would have the tiebreaker thanks to a January win over them. As it stands after tonight, Seward remains in 5th place with Butler and Cloud hot on their trail at 10-6. Barton falls back to .500 on the season with the loss at 14-14 while dropping to 6-11 in Jayhawk Conference play where they are now in 10th place with two games left to go.

It will be another short turnaround for the Lady Saints as they have just one day to rest before hitting the road to Colby on Monday night to take on the winless Lady Trojans in the Community Building at 6:00.

SEWARD COUNTY/BARTON BOX SCORE<http://www.sewardsaints.com/sports/wbkb/2015-16/boxscores/20160213_shqd.xml?view=boxscore>

Roy Allen