Marchino’s 31 Guides Seward Past Garden City

LIBERAL, Kan. – Sophomore guard Avery Marchino poured in a game-high 31 points as the Seward County Lady Saints earned an 81-78 home victory over the Garden City Broncbusters at The Greenhouse Wednesday evening.

With the win, Seward (17-8, 12-7 KJCCC) remains in sole possession of fifth place in the conference as Garden City (15-8, 10-8) was attempting to join the Lady Saints in a tie.

Marchino totaled 31 points, six rebounds and four assists while Trinitee Holmes finished with a career-high 21 points to go with six rebounds. Kimora Fagan chipped in 14 and three assists. Tyniah Smith had eight points and four rebounds off the bench.

London Turner led the Busters with 21 points and seven rebounds, Elektra Mjoll has 20 points shooting 6-10 from three and Sokjna Ndiaye had 18 points.

The game saw eight ties and 12 lead changes. Seward shot a blistering 23-26 (88.5%) from the free throw line while knocking in half of their threes (6-12). Garden City was 8-19 from three and 14-19 (73.7%) from the free throw line.

Garden City led 22-20 after the first quarter but the second quarter saw Seward shoot an impressive 9-14 from the field and 9-9 from the free throw line to win the quarter 29-19 and head to halftime ahead 49-41.

The third quarter was a slog for the Lady Saints, being outscored 22-11, shooting 4-10 from the field. Garden City got its first lead of the half with 1:05 to play off a Turner jumper that made it 61-60. Turner scored again 15 seconds later and Garden City led 63-60 headed to the fourth.

Seward capitalized off free throws in the fourth shooting 10-12 with Marchino knocking down 5-6. An 8-0 run to begin the quarter put Seward ahead 68-63 with 7:24 to play. Garden City led 75-74 off a three-point play with 1:44 to go. Alexander made a pair of free throws on the next possession to put Seward ahead 76-75 and they never trailed again.

Marchino notched her second 30-point game of the season and her 15th 20-plus point game on the year. She leads the KJCCC, averaging 20.2 points per game and had 14 second quarter points in the win.

Seward travels to second-ranked Butler on Saturday for a 2 p.m. tip in El Dorado.