In a game the Seward Lady Saints led by 19 only to see that lead dwindle to one with three minutes to go, Seward prevailed.  The Lady Saints improved to 3-0 with an 80-71 win over the Otero Lady Rattlers at the Seward Classic Saturday night in the Green House.  Avery Marchino scored a career high 29 points.

Seward jumped on the visitors from La Junta, Colorado for a 14-0 lead.  Otero didn’t score until the 3:02 mark of the first quarter.  Seward led 21-7 after one quarter.  The Lady Saints took a 44-30 lead into halftime.  Otero controlled the third quarter out scoring SCCC 21-14 to make it 58-51 Seward after three.  Seward seemed to get their legs back under them with a 63-51 lead with 8:40 to play and led 69-58 before the Lady Rattlers reeled in a 10-0 run to make it 69-68 with 3:00 to play.  That’s when Avery Marchino took over the game with a banker in the lane to make it 71-68 and a pair of left corner 3’s to put the game out of reach.

Kimora Fagan added 20 points.  A’Neya Chamber scored 16.

Otero is 0-4 and Seward is 3-0.  Otero plays Garden City at 1pm Sunday in the Seward Classic.  Seward hosts Northeastern (Colorado) at 3pm on 1270 and 92.3.  Yesterday, Garden City topped Northeastern 83-62.