sewardsaints.com
CONCORDIA — The Seward County men's basketball team lost its conference opener on the road, falling 85-65 to Cloud County at Arley Bryant Gymnasium on Wednesday night.
Seward (5-2, 0-1 KJCCC) was outscored 52-24 in points in the paint as the T-Birds shot 54.2% (32-59) from the field compared to the Saints 33.9% (21-62).
It marks the Seward men's fifth straight loss in Concordia.
Seward raced out to an 8-0 lead early as Lyna Brooks Jr. opened the game with a three, Lucas N'Gombo put in a layup and Quincey Kidd hit a three. Cloud got on the board but Seward answered with a Bailey Milligan layup to make it 10-2 at the 13:53 mark.
Cloud then ripped off a 15-0 run over the next five minutes, taking a 17-10 lead at the 8:38 mark. Seward used back-to-back Korbin Dowdell layups to stop the run and trim the lead to three. The teams traded buckets but Cloud pulled away and took its first double-digit lead at the five-minute mark as a Samuel Akot layup made it 26-16 T-Birds. Seward trailed by eight with 2:18 to play after a Brevyn Coleman free throw. Cloud's Manasseh Stackhouse scored eight points over the final 2:10 including two threes in the final 36 seconds to send Cloud to the locker room with a 38-24 lead.
The Saints never cut the lead to single digits in the second half. They were outscored 47-41 in the half as the T-Birds converted 59.3% of their shots. Seward cut the lead to 11 with 7:50 to play but Cloud answered with a 10-0 run to make it 74-51 with 4:19 remaining. The T-Bird lead swelled to 24 at the 1:43 mark, their largest of the game.
Antonio Williams Jr. led Seward with 21 points off the bench, 19 of them coming in the second half. Dowdell finished with 15 points, four rebounds, three steals and two assists. They were the lone Saints in double figures. N'Gombo had eight points and five rebounds and Brooks Jr. had nine points and three rebounds.
Stackhouse led Cloud with 18 points and seven rebounds. Elidjah Savane (15 points, six rebounds) and D'ontez Walker (16 points, five rebounds) added to Cloud's 47 bench points.
The Saints return home for their home conference opener on Saturday at 4 p.m. hosting Colby. KSCB is the game buyout sponsor and tickets are available at the Liberal Recreation Department, Flooring America, BrickHouse BBQ & Brew, Toot 'n Totum, Billy's Ayr Lanes and Ashley Furniture.
