Nolen’s Swinging Tip Gives Seward One Point Win

In an extremely unlikely finish, the Seward County

Saints held off a scrappy TAAG Academy Prep School team Saturday night

with a once in a lifetime tip-in from Marky Nolen as time expired to

give themselves an 84-83 win in their opening game of the 2010 Pizza Hut

Classic. Seward led nearly the entire game but let the Ambassadors hang

around until the end when they hit a couple of big shots and took care

of business at the free throw line to erase the Saints lead and take one

of their own in the waning seconds of the game. After TAAG made a shot

to take the lead with 6 seconds left, Seward did not call timeout and

Nolen marched the ball up the court to the right elbow. Thinking that

time was about to run out he launched up a shot that hit hard off the

backboard and the rim and it looked like the Saints were about to suffer

the biggest upset the Greenhouse has seen in a long time. However, fate

was on Seward’s side tonight and the ball bounded off of the rim to

nearly the free throw line where Nolen happened to be after his momentum

from the first shot and after a wild volleyball like arm swing,

connected with the ball on a desperation tip that kissed off of the

glass and through the hoop as the horn sounded giving Seward County the

84-83 win.

Daveon Boardingham led Seward with 17 points in the game

while Jeremy Jones pitched in 16 to go along with 7 assists. Nolen

finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds as well as 6 assists. Phil

Hawkins and Markee Mazyck both had 10 for the Saints in the win.

Seward moves to 9-2 on the year and will take on the

Colorado Kings Saturday night at 8:00 in the Greenhouse.