Saints Sweep Otero Classic, Take Down Trinidad State

LA JUNTA, Colo. – Seward County men's basketball got its second double digit victory of the weekend on Saturday afternoon, defeating the Trinidad State College Trojans 83-70 at the McDivitt Center.

Seward (2-0) defeated the Trojans (0-2) who were receiving votes in the NJCAA Division 1 men's basketball preseason rankings.

"I thought we were a little more comfortable with our assignments on both sides of the floor in game two," said head coach Austin Downing. "We were able to execute some things and got nearly everyone involved having 11 of 13 guys score."

The Saints were hot out of the gate, putting up 51 first half points, taking a 51-35 advantage into halftime. Seward ended the half on a 7-0 run over the last 1:42. Sophomore Quincey Kidd hit a corner three off an assist from freshman Korbin Dowdell, Sophomore JJ Chapman put in a lefty hook shot and freshman Bailey Milligan followed up a missed three with a layup with four seconds to go.

"We valued the basketball better and gave ourselves more opportunities to score the ball," said Downing. "We also rebounded the ball well and took good shots almost the entire night which is why I think we were able to score at the rate we did. "

Trinidad State outscored Seward 35-32 in the second half but the damage was already done. The Seward lead grew to 19 at 59-40 with 15:19 remaining. Trinidad cut it to 12 at the 10:03 mark and later eight with 2:38 to go but that was as close as they got as sophomore Awit Mamer hit a corner three on the next possession to put Seward up 79-68.

Chapman paced Seward finishing with 16 points on 8-11 shooting, also pulling down nine rebounds. Mamer finished with 13 points and three rebounds, sophomore guard Lyna Brooks Jr. added seven points and seven rebounds and Milligan had nine points and four rebounds. Antonio Williams Jr. totaled eight points, two rebounds, three assists and two steals.

As a team, Seward shot 50.0% (34-68) and 9-28 (32.1%) from three. The Saints were 6-9 from the free throw line. They outrebounded TSC 40-33 and held the Trojans to just 38.7% from the field and 6-31 (19.4%) from three

"We fixed things that we struggled with in game one, in game two, and you can't ask for anything more from your group on a day-to-day basis besides a little bit of improvement and I thought the guys did that."

Seward hosts Friends University JV on Wednesday, Nov. 5th, at 11 a.m. for their home opener. The Saints will welcome the school district's fifth graders to The Greenhouse for the game which you can watch at SewardSaints.com. Live stats will be available on SewardSaints.com as well with Brock Kappelmann broadcasting the game on KSCB talk radio 1270 and 92.3 FM or online by clicking here.