By VINCE LOVERGINE
TopSports.news
It’s been tough sledding for Seaman girls basketball as of late, with the Vikings losing five straight and seven of their last eight after dropping a 57-48 United Kansas Conference home decision to Basehor-Linwood Friday night.
“Sometimes it's hard when you keep score to see progress,'' Seaman coach Matt Tinsley said. "We played them a month ago and they ran us out of the gym and here we are, we played so much better. We see that growth but the scoreboard doesn’t show that when you look at wins and losses.
"We battled, we didn’t lose that game because we didn’t have gas left in the tank, we gave them everything we had. If we get a couple of 50/50 balls or a couple of things bounce our way, it’s a different ball game. They just made a few more plays than we did.''
Senior Maddie Gragg got Seaman on the board first with a triple but Basehor-Linwood was hot from three in the first quarter, taking a 10-7 lead. Junior Cara Beaton helped the Lady Vikes reclaim the lead at 11-10, but that was the last time Seaman would lead in the first half.
Seaman had it tied at 14 until Sarah McKnight drilled a trey in the right corner at the buzzer to take a 17-14 lead into the second quarter.
The Bobcats grew their lead to 21-14, which was trimmed to four off a Brynn Spencer three and got it down to three from another Gragg triple (23-20), but then Basehor-Linwood’s full court press gave Seaman fits.
A last-second layup from Gragg had the Lady Vikes down seven (30-23) heading into halftime.
“We went from a team that handed teams Christmas presents to taking care of the ball and that gives us a chance,” Tinsley said. “I told the girls after the game, 'I’ve seen this movie before.' We had a team in 2021, kind of the same thing -- struggled a little bit, had to fight a little bit, scratch and claw -- but we got better as the season went on and they call it March Madness for a reason.
"I still believe we haven’t reached our peak yet and we’re going to get there.”
The Bobcats led by five (41-36) going into the fourth. Viking sophomore Claire Puvogel got the deficit back to two off a 3-pointer, but after that, the Bobcats went on a 10-2 run.
Seaman got it back to within five (53-48) off a Jaydin Frickey triple with 36 seconds left but couldn’t draw any closer.
Gragg led the Vikings with 19 points.
BASEHOR-LINWOOD 57, SEAMAN 48
Basehor-Linwood 17 13 11 16 – 57
Seaman 14 9 13 12 – 48
Basehor-Linwood (17-5) – Super 1 0-0 3, Fitzgerald 1 0-0 2, Schwisow 1 0-0 2, McKnight 1 3-4 6, Wittkop 10 3-4 27, Christopher 4 2-8 10, Van Donge 2 0-0 5, Deters 0 2-2 2.
Seaman (8-12) – Frickey 1 0-0 3, Alfen 1 0-0 2, Dreher 3 0-3 6, Spencer 1 0-0 3, Beaton 1 2-4 4, Puvogel 1 0-0 3, Ayers 4 0-1 8, Gragg 7 2-3 19.
3-point goals – Basehor-Linwood 7 (Wittkop 4, Super, McKnight, Van Donge), Seaman 6 (Gragg 3, Puvogel, Spencer, Frickey). Total fouls – Basehor-Linwood 10, Seaman 14. Fouled out – Gragg. Technical fouls – none.
