EARL WATT
• Leader & Times
The struggles for the Seward County Saints now have the team in jeopardy of not qualifying for the playoffs.
After losing to Dodge City 73-58 Saturday in the Greenhouse, the Saints remained 13th out of 13 teams in the Jayhawk West and three games behind 12th place Cloud County.
Seward has seven conference games remaining on the schedule.
The Saints only had seven players suited up for Saturday’s game and at one time Kiku Parker had to be helped off the court while favoring his ankle, but he later returned.
Dodge City (10-14, 7-11) only led by five at half, but the Saints started to fade in the second half.
The Saints slowed down the game by waiting to shoot until the final few seconds of every possession, but several shot clock violations coupled with desperation last second shots limited Seward to one-shot possessions.
With only two conference wins, Seward needs at least one more win to avoid their worst conference performance in 21 years.
Seward last qualified for the national tournament under coach Jason Sautter in 2019.
Rylee Hernandez became the head coach for the 2021-2022 season and has amassed a record of 35-80 in four seasons with seven games to play this season.
The Saints have never had four consecutive losing seasons in conference since records have been kept.
