Sewardsaints.com
ARKANSAS CITY – The Seward men trailed Cowley by double digits in the second half on Wednesday evening at W.S. Scott Auditorium but rallied to force overtime and eventually win, 91-83.
Seward (13-4, 8-3 KJCCC) now sits in a tie for first place in the Jayhawk Conference with Dodge City, who they travel to play Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m.
The Saints fell behind early as Cowley (11-6, 6-5) opened the game on an 8-0 run. The Tiger lead pushed to 13-5 and later 24-12 midway through the half.
A Quincey Kidd triple cut the lead to single digits, 27-19, and another Kidd three three minutes later brought Seward within six at 31-25 with 6:52 in the half. The teams exchanged buckets down the stretch but Cowley went to halftime holding a 45-35 lead. Seward shot just 33.3 percent and were outrebounded 17-11 in the first half.
The second half saw Seward continue to cut into the lead as Lucas N’Gombo made it a four point game, 47-43, with a layup three minutes into the half. Cowley used a 9-2 run to push it back to double digits, 56-45, with 13:31 to play. Korbin Dowdell and Antonio Williams Jr. then put in back-to-back buckets to trim the lead back down to seven, and Seward did not trail by double digits again in the game. A Williams Jr. three tied the game 59-59 with 9:08 to go capping a 14-3 Seward run.
“Our ability to play through adversity was what impressed me,” Seward coach Austin Downing said. “We weren’t rebounding, taking care of the ball or getting the shots we wanted early. The second half we did a good job of flipping the switch.”
The teams traded leads down the stretch with an RJ McKinnie layup putting the Saints ahead 72-68 with 3:13 to play. A Williams Jr. layup made it 74-70 with 2:38 to go but Cowley held the Saints scoreless for the rest of regulation with neither team scoring over the final 2:02. The Saints had the ball with 19 seconds left and Downing drew a play up for McKinnie that saw him get an open look at a layup but it rimmed out with five seconds left and Cowley’s full court heave was no good sending the game to overtime.
Seward outscored Cowley 17-9 in the overtime period with McKinnie shooting 6-8 from the free throw line to ice the game. Awit Mamer put in consecutive buckets around the two minute mark of overtime to give Seward a five point lead.
“We challenged the guys at halftime to be tougher,” Downing said. “We did a good job of letting the whistle be the whistle and not let it affect us in that second half.”
McKinnie finished with a career-high 24 points (19 in the second half and overtime combined), five rebounds and three assists. Williams Jr. had 19 points and five rebounds off the bench while N’Gombo put up 16 points and nine rebounds. Mamer had 11 points, six rebounds and three steals.
Seward was 36-47 from the free throw line while Cowley shot 19-28. The Saints forced 18 Cowley turnovers compared to 12 of their own. Seward got 40 points off the bench and played 12 players.
Cowley’s Marcus Smith led all scorers with 28 points, Roman Miller added 22 points and seven rebounds.
The win snaps a five-game losing streak to the Tigers. Seward has now played two overtime games this season, both in the spring semester with an earlier loss at Independence.
“Our guys experienced a tough loss in overtime down in Independence, and they said in the huddle tonight we aren’t doing that again,” Downing said.
