Lady Saints storm past hapless Neosho 96-44

by Chance Plett
Sports editor

The Seward County women used a stellar second-half defensive effort and a balanced scoring attack to cruise by overmatched Neosho 96-44 in the first round of the Region VI playoffs March 2 at the Green House.

The win moves the Lady Saints one game closer to winning their second national championship in three years. A national title is perhaps the only thing that will erase the pain Seward endured Feb. 28 when their nine year, 135-game home-court winning streak came to an end with a 64-30 loss to Hutchinson in the regular season's final game.

Prior to the beginning of the playoffs, Lady Saints head coach Jim Littell said that he had some concerns about how his team would respond to such a disheartening setback.

"I'm concerned that we play hard after a loss," Littell said. "We have to shoot better if we're going to win, especially our one and two guards. (Neosho head coach Charles) "Goar's kids are always the type to play hard, really hard."

Playing hard hardly helped Neosho. Seward County out-muscled the Lady Panthers inside, out-shot them from the field, and continually beat them up and down the court in transition on the way to a 52-point win.

Led by Amanda Foster's 21 points, five Seward County players scored in double figures, and eight scored at least five points for 28-3 Lady Saints who advance to the quarter-finals of the Region VI tournament to play Pratt Community College.

Seward opened the game with a 12-2 run, and then their outside shooters heated up. Freshman point guard Devry McDonald sank a left-wing three-pointer for a 15-4 Lady Saints advantage and moments later followed it with another three-pointer to extend the lead to 20-6 and effectively remove any doubt as to the outcome of the game.

After two Neosho scores, Seward responded with a 15-4 scoring burst that included three-pointers by Lori Drake, McDonald and Stephanie Thiel.

Drake finished the night with 14 points and a team-high 10 rebounds in just 20 minutes of play. Drake said that the loss to Hutchinson provided extra fire for the Lady Saints.

"When a team has gone 27-2 like we had, a loss really motivates you to come out and compete and play harder," Drake said.

Drake said that in particular the team had been focusing on playing better defensively, but defense was perhaps the one area Seward County struggled in during the first half.

Seward began in a man-to-man defense, but by the midway point of the first half, they had already committed eight team fouls, which forced them to revert to their zone defense.

Littell said his team needs to be able to play each defense effectively if it wants to enjoy a lengthy postseason run.

"We tried to play man-to-man," Littell said, "But we quickly fouled ourselves out of it and showed why we primarily play zone."

Despite defensive struggles, the Seward offense was firing on all cylinders as the Lady Saints streaked to a 26-point halftime advantage. Neosho sank 13 of 15 free throws in the first half, but shot 26 percent and managed only seven field goals.

At halftime, Foster and McDonald had more points between themselves (28) than Neosho did as a team (27).

At intermission, Foster had 15 points and seven rebounds. McDonald had 13 points, six assists and a trio of three-pointers. She finished the night with 16 points, eight assists, four rebounds, two steals, and just a single turnover.

Although Seward County had already scored as many points as it would need to win the game, the Lady Saints didn't let up a bit in the second half. Instead, they refocused and turned the defensive intensity up another notch, allowing just 17 second-half points.

Sophomore Ania Grabias, playing in her final game at the Green House, said that no one in the locker room was pleased with the first half in spite of the 53-27 lead.

"We didn't play very well," Grabias said. "Our first half was poor. Coach told us at halftime that we would have to do better."

The Lady Saints answered Littell's challenge and put the clamps on Neosho in the second half. The Lady Panthers mustered only six field goals in the half and shot 22 percent for the game, making just 13 of 59 field goal attempts.

Despite the rout, Seward is not without a few soft spots in its armor.

One blemish in Seward's second half was free throw shooting. After making all 13 of their free throw attempts in the first half, the Lady Saints made just six of 16 shots in the second half.

Lady Saints leading scoring Stephanie Thiel also struggled to find her shooting touch for the second straight game. Thiel, who earlier in the year set the Seward County single-season three-point record, finished with 16 points, but shot just two-for-12 from behind the arc.

In the loss against Hutchinson, Thiel was held to five points and sank just one of her 12 three-point attempts.

Littell said that finding an open shot will not be easy for Thiel for the remainder of the season.

"When it gets to the point where you've made more than 100 three-pointers like she has, people are not going to leave her open," Littell said.

The Lady Saints next opponent, Pratt, is a team they've defeated twice this year. Seward won an 80-53 decision Jan. 12 at the Green House, and crushed Pratt 96-31 in Pratt on Valentine's Day.

Littell cautioned that a victory in this game would not come as easily as in the first two meetings.

"Those two games where a case of us catching them off-guard at times when they weren't playing well," Littell said.

Littell said that Pratt has three scorers who can create difficult match-ups defensively.

"They have three guards who average 20, 18, and 16 points," Littell said. "They are very explosive scorers." Littell said that he'd have to watch some more game tape before he decided if he was going to begin the game in a man-to-man or in a zone defense.

A win over Pratt would advance the Lady Saints to the semi-finals of the Region VI tournament where they would play either Cloud County or Independence March 8 at 3 p.m. Seward has a 1-1 record against Cloud this season, and has not played Independence.

Grabias said that she is excited to continue postseason play regardless of who her team's opponent might be.

"I was happy to beat Neosho, but I'm most excited about playing good teams in the regional tournament and having the chance to go to nationals," Grabias said.

Drake echoed those sentiments and said that she not ready for her season to end any time soon.

"This was just one game," Drake said. "We have seven more to go."