Lady Broncbusters Unable to Overcome Seward County in First Game Back

GARDEN CITY, KS. – There’s parts of basketball that can be coached and taught to a team. Positioning, shooting motions, set plays, the list goes on.

One thing that cannot be taught is effort; it’s something that a team has or doesn’t. Wednesday night’s affair saw the team with more effort come out on top.

The Garden City Broncbusters were dealt their second home loss of the season, falling against the Seward County Lady Saints, 71-63, at Conestoga Arena on Wednesday night. The Broncbusters were out-rebounded, 39-19, in their most surprising loss of the season.

“We didn’t play hard, bottom line,” Broncbusters’ head coach Greg Franklin said. “We come out of timeouts, draw things up, or say what we’re doing, and we wouldn’t execute.”

Garden City (10-3, 5-3 KJCCC) struggled out of the gates, missing some easy looks around the rim to allow SCCC to jump out to a lead as big as nine. Garden City shot just 29.4 percent from the floor in the first 10 minutes.

The Broncbusters trailed, 17-10, at the end of the first; just the third time all season GCCC were down after the first.

The second quarter saw Garden City come into life on the offensive end. Three-pointers from Sariah ‘Boxer’ Conley and Antonicia Moultrie kickstarted an 11-0 run, bringing a 12-point lead down to just one. The Saints would cash in on few free throws inside the last minute, bringing their lead to 34-31 after 20.

Conley excelled with 21 points, the second time she had led the Broncbusters in scoring this season.

“We have to have somebody step up and be a vocal leader,” Franklin said. “If you’re going to be a leader, you have to lead by example, too.”

Seward County (7-6, 3-4 KJCCC) forced Garden City into crucial turnovers in the third period. The Broncbusters committed six turnovers in the third after just nine team turnovers in the first half, building a four-point lead to as large as 11.

The lead proved too much for the Broncbusters, who only out-scored the Saints by two in the fourth quarter. Big second-half buckets by Xoe Rosalez, including a crucial three-pointer in the fourth, proved too much for the Busters to handle.

“I’ll take blame where blame is due, but when you don’t play hard, I’m not going to bail you out on that,” Franklin said. “They were tougher than us. [Seward County] played harder, and they played tougher. I give them credit, all the credit in the world.”

The Broncbusters face an important road test on Saturday at Nellis Hall, as they travel East to face the No. 23 Coffeyville Red Ravens. Coverage on KWKR 99.9 ‘The Rock’ begins at 1:40 P.M., with tip-off scheduled for 2:00.

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