Marchino Leads Lady Saints to Win in Home Opener

LIBERAL, Kan. – Avery Marchino scored a career-high 29 points and the Seward County Lady Saints defeated the Otero Rattlers 80-71 on Saturday evening in The Greenhouse.

Seward (3-0) won its home opener in game two of the Seward Classic. It marked the second time this season that Seward has defeated Otero after winning 91-85 in overtime on Oct. 31st in La Junta.

Marchino finished with 29 points and seven rebounds while Kimora Fagan stuffed the stat sheet with 20 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and three steals to pace Seward.

Seward led for 39 minutes with Otero never leading in the game. The Lady Saints scored the first 14 points of the game bursting out to a 14-0 lead as Trinitee Holmes, Marchino and Fagan each canned triples in the stretch. Otero scored its first points of the game with 3:06 to go in the first quarter but an A'Neya Chambers triple and two more Marchino buckets saw the Lady Saints leave the first quarter with a 21-7 advantage.

The second quarter was the highest combined scoring quarter with each team posting 23 points. The Lady Saints took their largest lead of the game, 20, with 1:27 to go off two Fagan free throws to make it 44-24 but Otero used a 6-0 run to end the half to make it a 44-30 game at halftime.

The Rattlers came out firing in the second half outscoring Seward 21-14 and pulling within four at 47-43 midway through. Seward took a 58-51 lead to the fourth quarter. Seward led by double digits early in the quarter but Otero cut the lead to three at 69-66 with four minutes to play and a minute later cut it to one at 69-68. The Lady Saints outscored Otero 11-3 over the final three minutes to secure the win.

Holmes pulled down 10 rebounds while Grace Posch dished out seven assists and had five rebounds to go with six points. Chambers had 16 points and seven rebounds off the bench.

Seward shot just 35.6% (26-73) from the field compared to Otero's 38.2% (26-68) but the Lady Saints outrebounded the Rattlers 62-36.

Itxasne Fernandez Arguello led Otero with 20 points, seven rebounds and four assists.