Jay Daubenberger
Liberal, Kansas – Saturday afternoon the Seward County Saints men’s basketball team took on the Colby Trojans in a big Jayhawk conference matchup where Seward County was able to pull away early and never looked back as they triumphed over the Trojans 73-61 at home inside of the Green House to put their name back in the win column.
The Saints started the game strong with two quick baskets in the opening minute to pull ahead of Colby and a big-time step-back three from Carson Bennett put Seward County ahead 7-2 before the Trojans created a run of their own to storm ahead and take a 13-9 lead of their own. Amir Whitlock help trim away at the Colby lead with a perfectly timed steal which led to two easy points on the other end that put the score at 14-12 and seconds later he came up with another steal and found Bennett open from beyond the arc for his second three to retake the lead 15-14. Lovasoa Andriatsarafara used his size in the paint to crash the offensive glass and score some second chance points for the Saints to keep their lead alive 21-20 as the remaining minutes of the first half went back and forth between the Seward County and the visiting Trojans. Dave Olaniyi intercepted a Colby pass where Nathan Jones was able to score it in on the opposite end of the floor to separate themselves by three with their opponents until the Trojans pushed back to go up by two until Blessin Kimble scored his first points of the afternoon to knot the score up at 29-29 heading into the halftime break.
It was a slow start to the second half with neither team able to lift the lid on the basket for the first four minutes until Bennett was able to strike once again from distance, splashing home a three from the top of the arc to pull in front 32-29 and the Saints never looked back. Whitlock helped stretch the lead with a long-range bomb of his own followed by a second chance score that put Seward County ahead 43-37 going into the under 12:00 media timeout. SCCC’s lead continued to grow thanks to Kimble who found his rhythm and was able to score however and whenever he chose including a big fast break dunk that was followed seconds later by a an alley-oop slam to put the Saints’ advantage up to twelve 64-52. Bennett splashed in his fifth three of the night to put Seward County out of reach to seal the win for the Saints at 73-61 to triumph over the Colby Trojans.
Four Saints reached the double figure mark led by Bennett who scored a game high of 19 points with five made three-pointers. Whitlock tallied 16 off the bench while Kimble added on 13 with 9 rebounds with Mathias M’Madi scoring 10 points as well.
Seward County now improves to 4-12 overall on the 2023-24 season and now sit at 2-8 in the Jayhawk conference. They will stay at home for their next matchup when they take on Independence on Wednesday in an 8:00 PM tip-off. The game airs on 107.5 and Community Bank is buyout sponsor.
