Leslee Smith scored the winning basket as the Seward Community College Saints beat Hutchinson 62-60 to lift their third straight Jayhawk West Conference Championship. Photo: provided

In what was a great atmosphere for junior college basketball, Seward and Hutch duked it out with neither team disappointing anxious onlookers, going blow for blow all night, with neither team leading by more than 8 at any point in the game.

Hutch led 29-24 at the half and led much of the second half before Seward took the lead with 1:54 to go.  The Saints led 60-56 before four straight Dragon points tied the game at 60 with 11 seconds remaining to set up the drama.  Malcolm Hill-Bey drove the length of the court and dished to Leslee Smith who finished at the rim to give Seward the lead with 4.5 seconds left and a last ditch effort by Hutchinson fell short as the Greenhouse crowd erupted in elation as the Saints captured the Jayhawk West title with a 62-60 win.  

The Saints were extremely efficient on the offensive end in the second half of the game, shooting 60% from the field to finish at 45% for the game, while holding the league’s top offense in Hutchinson to just 38% from the floor in the win.  Avila played his second straight huge game against the Dragons, scoring 19 points and hauling down 8 rebounds in the win while fellow big man Leslee Smith notched his second double-double in a week, scoring 16 points and ripping down 10 big rebounds.  Peters added 12 for the Saints and Hill-Bey pitched in 8 off the Seward bench. 

Seward finished the regular season having won 8 straight and 14 of 15 dating back to January 5, 2013 to end the first season 23-7 overall.  The Saints win their third consecutive title with a 14-2 mark in conference play, the most wins by any Jayhawk West school since Barton won 14 in 2002.  The 5th ranked Dragons suffered their third loss in five games, falling to 27-3 overall and finished in 2nd place in the Jayhawk West for the 4th straight year at 13-3.  The Saints draw the top seed for the upcoming Region VI Tournament beginning on Saturday and will host Colby in the 1st round in the Greenhouse at 6:00PM.  Hutchinson will be at home as well as the #2 seed and they will take on Northwest Kansas Tech in the Sports Arena Saturday night at 7:30PM.