Seward Wins 50th Straight Over Pratt
KSCB News - February 26, 2016 7:11 am
The Seward County Lady Saints got off to a hot start and never looked back Thursday night as they took on the Pratt Lady Beavers in the 1st round of the 2016 NJCAA Region VI Tournament. Seward jumped out to an 8-2 lead and used a 16-0 run in the first half to put the Beavers away early, winning 86-56 to capture their 50th straight win in their rivalry with Pratt. Seward advances to take on the Butler Grizzlies Tuesday in the Region VI Quarterfinals in Park City.
Seward used their size advantage early on, going to Joanna Grymek to jump out to a 5-0 lead on the Beavers Thursday night. A three by Daniela made it an 8-2 game, but Pratt came back to make it a 13-9 game later on as the quarter hit the midway point. The Lady Saints would not allow the Beavers another point in the quarter, going on a 4-0 run to close the period and then used threes from Tiani White and another from Galindo to finish off a 16-0 burst to blow the game wide open at 29-9. Four straight points from Manuela Fungate kept the Seward lead at 20 and the Lady Saints extended that to 24 at the break as the took a 45-21 lead to the locker room.
The Lady Saints shot 49% in the half and hit on 5 of 11 from downtown, good for 46% while Pratt shot just 35% and was 1 for 6 from deep. Grymek led Seward with 14 points and 5 rebounds in the half while three of five Beaver starters failed to score in the half.
Pratt got the first points of the second half, but after the bucket went on a 3:55 cold stretch as the Lady Saints pushed their lead to 30 on a three from Clitan de Sousa and a bucket inside from Grymek to make it 54-24. Three’s from Leslie Speer and Samm Ashida extended Seward’s lead to 60-26 and the route was on from there. Behind their bench, the Lady Saints ballooned their advantage to 74-36 after three. Despite facing impossible odds, Pratt continued to play hard with their season on the line, outscoring Seward 20-12 in the fourth, but it wasn’t nearly enough as the Lady Saints closed off an 86-56 win to move on and end the Beavers season.
Seward shot 57% in the second half to finish the game at 52% while Pratt shot just 37% in the final 20 minutes to end the night at 36% overall. Grymek led all scorers with 18 points while Speer chipped in 12 off of the Seward bench. All 12 Seward players scored 3 or more points in the game and no Lady Saint played more than 21 minutes in the win.
The Lady Saints pick up their 50th straight win over Pratt, a stretch that dates all the way back to the 1991 season. Seward improves to 23-7 on the year while Pratt ends their 2015-2016 at 11-19.
Seward moves onto the Region VI Quarterfinals where they will take on the Butler Lady Grizzlies Tuesday night at 7:00 at Hartman Arena in Park City.
