T-Birds Fly Past Saints

The Seward County Saints dropped to 0-3 in Jayhawk Conference play Saturday night as they were unable to slow down the visiting Cloud County Thunderbirds in an 88-78 defeat in front of their home crowd in the Greenhouse.

The night started with a three pointer from Cloud’s Deon Lyle on the T-Birds first possession in a sign of things to come for the rest of the night. Lyle connected on another three the next time down the floor for Cloud and just like that it was 6-0 Thunderbirds. The Saints battled back, tying the score at 8 and trailed by just one moments later at 11-10. But Seward went ice cold, going without a single field goal for a stretch of over seven minutes as Cloud opened up their lead to 20-12 as the first reached its midpoint. A three by Kevin Sims got Seward back to within five, but the Saints didn’t remain close for long as the T-Birds pushed their lead to double digits for the first time on the night and kept themselves at arm’s length for the rest of the half before taking a 46-33 lead into the break at half.

A pair of T-Bird threes early in the second half ballooned the Cloud lead to 16 before eight straight from the Saints, highlighted by back to back threes from Sims and Tre Kidd cut the advantage in half to 52-44. Cloud was unable to extend their lead anymore, but the Saints conversely were also unable to cut anymore into the T-Bird advantage. It remained an eight point game midway through the half and the two continued to trade baskets to the 7:00 mark as Cloud led 75-64. The Saints weren’t able to score the next two minutes and the T-Birds took advantage by extending their lead to 15 in the process and Seward never threatened again. Seven was as close as Seward got to the T-Birds in the final five minutes of the contest and in the end, Cloud iced the game away at the free throw line, finishing off the Saints in the end 88-78 to hand Seward their third straight defeat.

The Saints shot under 40% in the game and were just 6 for 21 from the three point line in the loss while Cloud connected on 45% from the field and 48% from deep. Seward was outrebounded by 12 in the defeat including allowing 17 Cloud offensive rebounds which turned into 16 second chance points. Sims scored a game high 33 in the losing effort while Charles Beauregard was the only other Seward player to score in double figures as he tallied 14.

Seward loses their third straight and remains winless in Jayhawk Conference play at 0-3 while falling to 3-4 overall on the year. Dating back to last season, the Saints have now come up on the wrong end of 11 of their past 12 games against conference foes. Cloud improves to 6-1 overall on the year and 2-1 in league action with the victory.

The Saints will have a short turnaround with the holiday week ahead as they host 7-0 Barton Tuesday in the Greenhouse at 8:00.