February 21, 2005
SAINTS UPSET FIRST PLACE GARDEN CITY
It was homecoming night at the Green House and the second-place Seward County Saints were looking to upset the No. 1 team in the Jayhawk Conference, the Garden City Broncbusters. The Saints did exactly that knocking off GCCC 83-76 and are now just two games back (in the loss column) of Garden City (18-8, 10-2 in the Jayhawk West) in the Western Division of the Jayhawk Conference.
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| Kyle Smith and the Saints defeated Garden City 83-76 Saturday night . Smith scored 19 points, shooting 8-for-8 from the free-throw line. |
On paper the game was a mismatch, Garden City had only been beaten once since starting conference play and was a team that displayed two of the Jayhawk Conference's most talented players this season, in Torre Johnson and B.J. Walker. Johnson is the Jayhawk Conference leading scorer (21.1 ppg. and 7.7 rpg.) and Walker is averaging 16.3 ppg, and 8.7 rpg., but that is why they play the game.
The Saints (20-7, 9-4 in the Jayhawk West) have been red hot during conference play at home, improving last night to 7-0 at home since the 2005 portion of the schedule began.
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Keoni Watson
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Kyle Smith
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Adam Tanner
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Last night was no different as Keoni Watson, Kyle Smith and Adam Tanner helped lead the Saints to their biggest win of the season over a conference opponent many think are playing some of the best basketball in the nation. Smith led the Saints down the stretch and hit three clutch three-pointers during the game keeping the Saints ahead of Garden throughout most the game. Smith ended the game with a team-high 19 points, three steals and was spectacular from the free-throw line shooting a perfect 8-for-8 on the game. Watson created plays for his teammates and himself throughout the entire game. Watson delivered down the stretch scoring 18 points, leading all players in rebounds with eight and dishing out eight assists. Tanner muscled-up down low all night with Walker (6'9") and Johnson (6'7"), scoring 16 points and shooting 7-for-10 from the free-throw line. Big man Preston Sims also allowed some rest for Tanner as he played 19 minutes and grabbed six rebounds.
Johnson and Walker both played well, scoring 17 and 19 points respectively. Seward played outstanding all night considering Garden City shot 17-of-25 from the field (.680) in the first half and still the Saints led 43-38 at halftime. The Saints did have the edge in the free-throw column. The Saints shot .759 % from the line (22-for-29) and Garden City shot only .565 from the charity stripe (13-for-23).
The second place Saints are off till Wednesday, when they travel to third place Cloud County Community College (14-12, 7-6 in the Jayhawk West) for an 8:00 p.m. tip-off. The Saints defeated Cloud 75-62, back on January 19, in Liberal.
BOX SCORE vs. Garden City Community College
