No. 10 Seward County squeaks by No. 15 South Plains 75-70 Friday night in Liberal

LIBERAL, KS — Despite building their lead to as much as 11 with under four minutes to play, a late rally from No. 10 Seward County pushed the Lady Saints past No. 15 South Plains 75-70 Friday night at the Greenhouse.

The Lady Texans move to 3-1 on the season and will look to get back in the win column on Saturday when they take on Dodge City at 2 p.m. The game will be streaming live at spctexans.com.

Leading by nine late in the final stint, South Plains' Caroline Germond put the Lady Texans up 11, 64-53 with a jumper from 10 feet with 3:58 remaining, part of a 15-6 run from South Plains. Seward would answer with a 15-2 run capped by a 3-pointer from Aquila Mucubaquire that gave the Lady Saints (3-0) a 68-66 lead with 1:15 to play, a lead they would not relinquish.

South Plains shot 41.5 percent (27-65) from the floor and 40 percent (6-15) from the perimeter in a game that was tied 10 times and saw seven lead changes over four quarters. Seward finished 34.4 percent from the field and shot just 28.6 percent from the behind the arc, but capitalized at the free throw line, sinking 27 of 31 attempts from the charity stripe.

South Plains scored 36 points inside the paint and tallied 10 points off 19 Lady Saints' turnovers. Reining National Player of the Week Keke Hunter scored in double figures for the fourth consecutive game, chipping in 20 points on 6 of 15 shooting for the Lady Texans and was a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line. Hunter also grabbed nine rebounds including seven on the offensive end in 27 minutes of action.

Sophomore Gabbie Green scored a season-high 18 points for South Plains, knocking down 8 of her 16 attempts from the floor to go along with five boards and a pair of steals. South Plains' Ruth Koang pitched in with nine points and six boards, bucketing 4 of 6 attempts from the floor in 19 minutes of action. Freshman Oceane Robin finished with eight points and four rebounds for South Plains while Romola Dominguez netted five and Nyah Morris finished with three.

Carla Covane led the offensive attack for the Lady Saints tallying 17 points on 6 of 10 shooting to go along with nine rebounds in 33 minutes. Seward's Silvia Veloso tallied 16 points and a game-high seven assists, while Sidney Tinner finished with 15 points and Mucubaquire netted 12.