Fighting until the final whistle

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Bedford

The Seymour girls basketball team’s rally fell short in the early afternoon Saturday at Bedford North Lawrence High School.

After trailing 34-19 at the half, the Owls were able to narrow their deficit to 58-56 in the waning seconds against Carmel.

Despite Seymour’s best efforts, there were no heroics as the Greyhounds escaped with a 58-56 win in their final game at the Pete Pritchett Holiday Tournament.

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In the first quarter the Greyhounds pulled away early, starting on a 13-1 run.

The Owls didn’t score their first field goal until there were 55 seconds left in the first eight minutes when Maci Lubker netted a two-point field goal.

Only one shot that wasn’t a free throw found the bottom of the basket in the first quarter for the Owls.

Down 21-7, the Owls continued to struggle offensively against the Greyhounds’ full

court press.

Both teams scored 12 points before halftime, as the Owls trailed by 15 points heading into the second half of play.

After a halftime speech from coach Jason Longmeier, the Owls found new life in the third quarter.

“I thought it took us until halftime to let our kids know that we’re good enough to play with anyone on our schedule,” Longmeier said. “I thought the first half we were a step or two slow. We had some poor angles against the press and gave up some easy baskets.”

The Owls narrowed the deficit to 10 points, at 35-45, when junior Morgan Ritz hit back-to-back buckets with 3:10 remaining.

With 40 seconds left, Maci Lubker hit a 3-pointer for the Owls.

The scoreboard read 48-40 in favor of the Greyhounds with eight minutes left of play.

The Greyhounds hit a 3-pointer after two Seymour turnovers at the beginning of the fourth quarter to retake their 10-point lead with seven minutes remaining.

Seymour then went on a 15-5 run.

Lindsey Hume, who came off the bench for the Owls, netted a 3-pointer, and Emilee Pollmann added another trey to bring the score to 51-55 with 3:30 left.

“I thought with what we were doing with their press we could get a shooter behind it,” Longmeier said. “Even when we missed those shots we got some offensive rebounds off it.”

Pollmann added another field goal to bring the Owls within two points at the 2:43 mark.

However, the Greyhounds immediately answered with a bucket of their own.

Down by four, with 30 seconds in the game, Mikayla Fee muscled her way for a basket to bring the Owls within one possession.

Following three intentional fouls, the Greyhounds made one of two free throws to lead 57-55.

The Owls’ Kayla Griffin was fouled with nine seconds left but only made one of her two free throw attempts.

Again, the Owls had to foul.

Despite the Greyhounds only making one free throw, and Lubker grabbing an offensive rebound on the miss, the Owls couldn’t get a shot up in the last seven seconds.

“At the end of the day it’s not one thing,” Longmeier said. “I could have called a timeout at the end when Maci Lubker had the ball, but I thought she had an angle to the basket. We got the ball in a captain’s hands, and that’s where we wanted it. (Carmel) did a good job of closing it out.”

The Owls won the battle for the boards, out-rebounding the Greyhounds 24-17.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the way our girls fought and the pride that they showed in the second half,” Longmeier said. “We don’t want moral victories here at Seymour, but that was a moral win for us in the second half. In the second half I thought we showed a lot more energy. The bench, fans and players on the floor had more energy. It created a different atmosphere.”

With the loss, the Owls move to 10-3 for their 2014-15 campaign. Seymour finished 2-1 at the two-day round robin tournament.

“If we play the way the way we did the second half, we’re going to be a very good basketball team the second half of the season,” Lonmeier said.

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