Big second-half run pushes Seward past Garden City

By Mike Pilosof

Photos by Adam Shrimplin

Garden City, KS-For more than half the game on Monday night, Garden City stayed right with 19^th-ranked Seward County. But one disastrous stretch in the second half proved costly, sending the Broncbusters to their seventh loss in their last eight games.

Reggie Miller scored 23 points, and Montrevion Flowers added 15 as the Saints shot 78 percent from the floor in the second half (21-of-27) en route to a 90-69 victory over the Broncbusters.

"I thought we played well for stretches in this game," Garden City Coach Patrick Nee said. "But that's a really good team we played tonight."

The Broncbusters trailed by only five at half and were within two after Jamir Thomas's thunderous dunk and three-point play made it 39-37 with 17:52 remaining. But Flowers hit a contested layup on other end followed by Marco Morency's tough five footer, spearheading a 46-21 run over the next 13 minutes, which was capped by Qaiyoom Olanlege's deuce that gave the Saints an 85-58 advantage with 4:33 left.

"This one got away really quick," Nee said. "I don't even know if we will watch the film on this one. We have to get set to play a good Hutchinson team on Wednesday."

Seward County led for most of the night, although the Broncbusters had an early four-point edge when Russhard Cruickshank buried a 3 four minutes into the contest. There were four lead changes over the first 20 minutes.

Tony Hopkins had another strong showing for Garden City in a losing effort, scoring 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting. He was the lone Broncbuster in double figures.

Seward County shot a season-best 67 percent and was 12-of-20 from downtown. Devin Bethely had 12 points and Morency added 21 off the bench.

Next up: Garden City at Hutchinson-Wednesday, Jan. 16-7:30 p.m. on 99.9 FM; westernkansasnews.com/kwkr and KWKR mobile app