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Friday
March 29th, 2024

lady saints 20 shotSidney Tinner gets by the Neosho defense for a shot Wednesday in the Greenhouse. Tinner and the Lady Saint had a rough shooting night, but their defense continued to dominate in a 77-52 win. L&T photo/Earl WattBy EARL WATT
• Leader & Times
Call it a trap game, or looking ahead to Saturday’s key match-up with Independence, or refer to it as just a bad shooting night.
For whatever reason, the Lady Saints didn’t bring their A game to the Greenhouse Wednesday against the struggling Neosho Lady Panthers.
Even on a night when they didn’t play their best, the still chalked up a 25-point win, knocking of Neosho 77-52 to remain two games ahead in the race for the Jayhawk Conference title with four games remaining.
The Lady Panthers took an early 7-2 lead in the Greenhouse while shot after shot missed the mark for the Lady Saints, and Seward head coach Toby Wynn pulled al five starters.
Carla Covane tied the game at 12-12 with four minutes to play in the period that was part of an 11-0 run that pushed Seward to a 19-12 lead.
The Lady Saints continued to extend the lead, and by half, the Lady Saints had a 41-20 advantage.
But the threes were simply to falling, and missed shots prevented the Lady Saints from stretching the lead beyond 30 in the second half, and the Lady Panthers cut the lead back to 18 before the lady Saints were able to stretch back to the 77-52 final.

Mollie Mounsey scored 24 points, and Amy Scott had 10.
“It was a disappointing effort by our club,” Wynn said. “It was not an acceptable start from our group. There’s no excuse for that. We didn’t execute right from the start. All night long, we were loose with the ball, not very sharp.”
Even though the Lady Saints caused 31 turnovers, Wynn was not satisfied with his defense.
“We weren’t solid and smart on defense,” he said. “We weren’t guarding the way we should. They just missed a lot of open shots. Our only saving grace was they didn’t make shots. If they made shots, it would have been a different game.”
And on offense Wynn believed the Lady Saints weren’t following the game plan.
“We go in transition and make the wrong play,” Wynn said. “We go for a kick-out three and turn down a lay-up. We weren’t as crisp and as solid as I wanted us to be playing at home tonight.”
With a No. 6 national ranking and Jayhawk Conference title in sight, Wynn said there is no margin for error this late in the season.
“ You always think we will be able to score, to make shots,” he said. “It doesn’t work that way in college. You can’t overlook anybody. You hope they take every game as being the most important game.”
The Lady Saints will travel to Independence Saturday to play the second-place Lady Pirates.
Shooting 38 percent won’t lead to a win in that game, and the Lady Pirates will have to upset the Lady Saints to have any chance of earning a win or share of the league title.
That’s why Wynn was not happy with the 25-point win over Neosho.
“We have a lot to be playing for,” he said. “To think that our team would overlook somebody at this point is a little disheartening.”

EARL WATT • Leader & Times

 

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