Defense Powers Lady Saints Past Lady Busters

LIBERAL, Kan. – The No. 13 Seward County women’s basketball team held their third straight opponent to under 30 percent shooting, defeating the Garden City Broncbusters 69-53 inside the Greenhouse Saturday night.

The Lady Saints (15-2, 11-2) jumped out to an early 6-1 lead, but unlike past opponents, the Broncbusters stopped the momentum, going on a 5-0 run to tie the game just a few minutes later. Seward retook the lead with just under two minutes to play, going up 16-12. However, a scoring drought for the remainder of the quarter allowed the Broncbusters a chance to take the lead, hitting a buzzer beater at the end of the quarter to take a 17-16 lead.

Despite shooting 58.3 percent (7 of 12) from the floor in the first quarter, Garden City led after hitting two of their three attempts from behind the arc, while the Lady Saints missed all three of their attempts.

The two teams traded points for half the second quarter, but the Lady Saints outscored the Broncbusters 8-2 in the final five minutes of the quarter. Seward used an 18-6 scoring advantage to take an 11-point lead into the break.

Seward held the Garden City to just 22 percent shooting in the second quarter, while the Lady Saints shot 58.3 percent in quarter. This time, the Lady Saints hit two threes, while Garden City missed both of their attempts.

The Lady Saints came out of the half swinging, going on a 9-2 run to start the second half, with Amy Scott hitting a deep three to cap the run. The third quarter was the best defensively for the Lady Saints, forcing eight Broncbuster turnovers, with six of them being steals. Silvia Veloso came away with four the steals in the quarter. Three steals in the final minute of the quarter led to seven unanswered points by Seward, extending their lead to 18 points by a score of 51-33.

The scoring was equal in the fourth quarter, but a Vilma Covane layup with just over two minutes to play gave the Lady Saints their biggest lead of the game at 21 points. However, the Broncbusters ended on an 8-3 run to cut the lead to 16, by a final score of 69-53.

Mollie Mounsey led all scorers with 23 points. She came one rebound shy of recording her first career double-double. Silvia Veloso (10 pts) and Vilma Covane (10 pts) joined Mounsey in double-figures

Seward shot 49.0 percent (25 of 51) from the floor, but just 26.3 percent (5 of 19) from behind the arc. The Lady Saints held the Broncbusters to just 29.0 percent shooting from the floor.

The Lady Saints will go on a two-game road stretch, starting with a pivotal matchup against Hutchinson as the two top place Jayhawk teams will face off in Hutchinson at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday (Jan. 17). Hutchinson will live-stream the game and it can be heard on 107.5 KSCB with Brock Kappelmann (pxp) on the call.

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Ian Applegate