Offense goes cold in eight-point loss to Seward County

By Mike Pilosof

Photo by Adam Shrimplin

Garden City, KS-Garden City Head Coach, Antwain Scales fully expected Seward County to make major adjustments following the Broncbusters upset win in Liberal three weeks ago. And they did. The problem was the Broncbusters were slow to rebut, and the end result was a second straight defeat.

Sierra Morrow scored 10 of her 14 points in the second quarter, Zhane Thompson hit four 3's, and the Saints evened the season series with a 57-49 victory over Garden City Wednesday night at Conestoga Arena.

"We just didn't come to play," Scales said. "This wasn't even about Seward's press. We had a ton of unforced turnovers, and it really came down to us not valuing possessions."

The loss dropped Garden City to 10-9 overall and 6-8 in the Jayhawk and was a far cry from the effort the brown and gold put forth over their previous seven games.

"We just did not do a good job of being fundamentally sound," Scales said. "It's hard to win games when you're constantly throwing passes away."

The Broncbusters finished with 26 turnovers, their second most in a game this season while shooting just 32 percent. And Jill Stephens, who had been on a recent tear, didn't even take a shot attempt until late in the fourth quarter.

"They didn't really pressure her (Stephens) where she couldn't move," Scales explained. "I kept yelling for them to move the ball. We just got stagnant and quit moving."

With Stephens' offense in the deep freeze, the Broncbusters struggled to get anything going. And after leading by as many as seven in the second following Taylor Lawhorne's baseline jumper, Garden City went quiet. Seward County responded with an 11-2 run highlighted by Morrow, who canned back-to-back deep triples to put the Saints up two with 2:24 to play in the half. They led 30-28 going to the locker room.

"We always stress constant movement, and we didn't have that today," Scales said. "People were tied, and we didn't guard the way that we needed to on the other end."

And that lack of offense finally caught up to Garden City in the second half. The Saints used a 9-2 surge to open up a seven-point cushion late in the third. Then, after the Broncbusters pulled back to within one on Donetria McGee's three-point play, Seward County suffocated Garden City, scoring 11 straight points, capped by Morrow, who beat a double team on the block to lay it home for a 52-40 advantage. Moments later, Hulda Joaquim drained a trey from the right corner, and the Saints were up 13 with 2:55 remaining.

"We didn't get up with a hand in their face all game," Scales said. "We didn't play good defense, and when you let them shoot open 3's, those kinds of things happen."

McGee finished with nine points to lead Garden City, who had multiple scoring droughts including a stretch in the fourth quarter where they went more than five minutes without a bucket. Justis Odom pulled down 13 rebounds, and Lawhorne had two blocks.

The Saints connected on 10-of-24 from deep, the 12^th time this season that they hit 10 or more 3's in a game.