Broncbuster men drop regular-season finale; Seward women conference champs
Liberal, KS-When the dust finally settled on the 2016-2017 regular season, the Garden City men were left wondering what could have been.
Charles Beauregard scored a game-high 33 points, his team hit 33-of-44 free throws, and despite dressing only seven guys, Seward County beat the Broncbusters 77-68 Wednesday night at the Greenhouse.
With the loss, Garden City drew the No. 8 seed in the opening round of the Region VI tournament and will host Independence on Thursday. The Saints are the 15 seed and will travel to Barton County.
“I don’t know what it is, but every time we come in this building, one of their guys shoots more free throws than our entire team,” Trenkle said. “I can name the guys. Last year it was Niem Stevenson and the year before that it was Kevin Sims. I don’t know what to say.”
Beuregard shot 21 freebies to Garden City’s 26. Still, the eye-opening aspect of this game was this: the Saints won with only a two-man rotation off the bench, and they did it without Sims, the conference’s leading scorer. They also had three starters log 37 minutes or more.
“We lost to seven guys,” Trenkle said. “Give them credit. My guys played hard, but we made more silly mistakes tonight.”
The game seemed to be a runaway at the start. Aaron Ray hit a 3-pointer and an elbow jumper followed by Troy Stancil’s reverse layup as Garden City (16-14, 12-14) built a 7-0 lead. During the first 3:30, Seward County (9-21, 6-20) missed their first seven shots. Head Coach Bryan Zollinger had seen enough and called a timeout.
The stoppage in play allowed the Saints to regroup, nailing their next three shots from the field and eventually taking their first lead when Beauregard sank two free throws with 8:24 to go in the half. Seward stretched that advantage to five when Tre Kidd, who had missed the previous three games because of suspension, converted a dunk off a back screen to make it 22-17 with 4:47 to play in the opening period.
“They’re a better team without Sims,” Trenkle said. “They moved the ball better without him.”
Down five, the Broncbusters answered with their own run. Naradain James hit a jumper and a slam, Jefkins Agyeman-Budu splashed home four free throws, and Garden City scored 10 unanswered to take a five-point edge 27-22. But they did not score the final 2:11 of the first half while the Saints countered by netting the final six points including Pierre Johnson’s buzzer-beating layup that gave Seward County a 28-27 lead at the half.
“If we can’t shoot, we won’t win Thursday,” Trenkle said. “It doesn’t matter where we play.”
The second half was even more of a headscratcher for the fourth-year coach.
After building a 45-41 lead following Ray’s 3-pointer from the right wing with 12:08 to play, Garden City went silent, literally. The Broncbusters went the next 11 minutes without a field goal. During that same stretch, Garden City mustered just 10 points while Seward County stormed back to take the lead. They eventually built it to as many as 13 once Beauregard hit two free throws following Trenkle’s technical foul with 1:13 remaining. Garden City got no closer than seven the rest of the way.
“It’s disappointing to lose a game like this,” Trenkle said. “But it is what it is.”
Garden City watched as another team shot lights out in the second half. Seward County was 12-of-20 (60 percent) from the field over the final 20 minutes. Meantime the Broncbusters shot a season worst 32 percent.
Ray scored a team-best 19 points for Garden City, who played without center Ben Howze for the second straight game. His status remains up in the air. Josh Fleming, who scored 28 in the Broncbusters win over Colby on Saturday, tallied just two points and was 0-for-8 from the field.
Johnson and Martavious Wilson each scored 10 for Seward County, who snapped a four-game losing streak.
Next up: Garden City vs. Independence-Thursday, Mar. 2-7 p.m. tip on 99.9 FM; westernkansasnews.com/kwkr and KWKR mobile app
Women
Liberal, KS-Growing up in a small town in the Texas Panhandle, Mollie Mounsey was the do-everything athlete. She was a district most valuable player on the hardwood, a two-time state champion discus thrower on the track team and an all-district performer in softball for Follet.
On Wednesday night, Mounsey added another bullet point to an already impressive resume-breaking a record that stood for nearly a decade.
The freshman scored a career-high 38 points while breaking the school, single-game mark by hitting 10 3-pointers as No. 4 Seward County raced past Garden City 86-55 at the Greenhouse.
The win, coupled with a coin flip in their favor gave the Saints the No. 1 overall seed in the Region VI tournament and a first-round bye. The Broncbusters finished as the No. 11 seed and will play at Cowley County on Thursday.
“They (Seward) have way too many weapons,” Garden City Coach Nick Salazar said. “If you stop one player, another one gets hot. And that’s what happened tonight.”
Mounsey shredded the Broncbusters defense early, draining four triples in the first 7:30 and scoring 13 of her team’s first 15 points. During one stretch, she tallied 11 straight as the Saints built a six-point first-quarter lead.
“She (Mounsey) was incredible shooting the ball,” Salazar said. “You can’t take that away from her. Seward County knew what was on the line.
Mounsey’s first-quarter stat line: 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting and 4-of-6 from downtown with three rebounds.
“We played zone against them, but it’s hard to play any type of defense when they’re hitting shots like that,” Salazar said.
It also did not help playing without Kavita Alkula, who missed the game after suffering a concussion on Saturday night.
“It was a bummer not having Kavita,” Salazar said. “She’s one of the best players to come through this program.”
Without Akula’s long-range marksmanship, the Broncbusters struggled to keep up. Mounsey’s layup and Neidy Ocaune’s two free throws gave Seward a 34-22 lead with 3:56 left in the first half. They eventually stretched that to 14 on Manuela Fungate’s layup with 10 seconds to play. Seward led by 12 at the break.
“It was like the perfect storm,” Salazar said. “What do you do?”
And Mounsey was not done.
The freshman hit four more 3’s in the third to push the Saints advantage to 23. In the fourth, she canned a deep ball that made it 74-48 before splashing home her 10th triple with 3:05 left that put her team up by 29. Seward County (29-1, 25-1) led by as many as 34 in the final minute of the contest.
“I thought our effort was good, but Seward is very good,” Salazar said. “I’m happy that someone other than Hutchinson dominated the league for once.”
The Saints shot 50 percent from the field on 33-of-61. It was the 19th time this season that they shot 45 percent or better. It was also the 26th time they connected on 10 or more triples. They were 12-of-28 (43 percent) from downtown.
Oregon-State signee Joanna Grymek recorded her seventh double-double of the season with 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Saints, who captured their first league crown since 2009. Brennyn Seagle added 11 points.
Jessica Carillo scored 18 points on 8-of-17 shooting for Garden City, who saw their two-game winning streak snapped. Monica Barefield scored 17 and Tionnia McKee chipped in 12. DeRae Lewis was just 1-of-9 shooting. She finished with five points.
Next up: Garden City at Cowley County-Thursday, Mar. 2-TBA (No Radio)
