Trey Burnett
The Seward men’s basketball team is off to its best start since the 2019-20 season as they moved to 4-0 with an 81-68 win over Frank Phillips College at The Greenhouse on Tuesday evening.
The last time Seward started 4-0 was six seasons ago. Jason Sautter was roaming the sidelines for a team that started 4-0 and finished 17-14. This year’s squad, led by first year head coach Austin Downing, never trailed the Frank Phillips Plainsmen (1-3) in the 13-point victory.
Despite being outrebounded 51-36, Seward led by as much as 28 and did not lead by less than double digits in the second half. The Saints forced 25 turnovers scoring 29 points off the takeaways.
Three Saints scored in double figures led by RJ McKinnie with 13 points, a team-high tying five rebounds and a team-high four assists. Lyna Brooks Jr. chipped in 12 points shooting 5-9 for the floor and Bailey Milligan added 10 points and four rebounds with seven of those points coming in the first half.
Milligan scored the games first points two minutes into the first half and the Saints proceeded to jump out to a 9-2 lead off a Milligan layup at the 16:13 mark. The first double digit lead of the game for Seward came off an Antonio Williams Jr. free throw making it 16-6 with 13:55 to go in the half.
FPC cut the lead to five off a three from Quint Booker with 10:13 to go but a Brooks Jr. three and a Lucas N’Gombo jumper pushed the lead right back to 10. A Brooks Jr. posterizing dunk off a steal put Seward ahead 36-20 with 2:23 to go in the first and the Saints added to the lead making it 46-26 heading to the break.
N’Gombo added seven points and five rebounds while Awit Mamer had three steals and JJ Chapman had three blocks.
The Plainsmen were held to 36.2% shooting from the field and also shot just 63.6% (21-33) from the charity stripe. They were led by Don Escobar’s 18 points. Mor Mboup had 10 points and eight rebounds.
Seward was 24-65 (36.9%) from the field and 9-26 (34.6%) from three. They shot 77.4% from the free throw line (24-31).
The Saints return to action on Friday kicking off a two-day stay in Hobbs, N.M., at the New Mexico Junior College Classic. Seward plays New Mexico Military on Friday, Nov. 14th, at 8 p.m. CST and will close out the classic on Saturday at 2 p.m. vs. the host, the receiving votes NMJC Thunderbirds. Brock Kappelmann will have both calls on 1270 AM and 92.3 FM (http://player.live365.com/TalkRadio1270KSCBAM).
