BEDFORD
The Seymour girls basketball team had a share of the Hoosier Hills Conference within reach.
However the two-time defending state champions, Bedford North Lawrence, wouldn’t be contained on its senior night.
The Stars came away with a 59-40 win against the Owls on Thursday.
In the first quarter, things looked ugly for the Owls as they gave up eight turnovers.
At the 5:20 mark, the Stars capped a 10-0 lead with a basket from Dominique McBryde.
Kayla Griffin broke the Stars’ streak with a 3-pointer at 4:34, and converted an and-one opportunity soon after to narrow the deficit to 13-6.
The Owls trailed 21-10 after eight minutes of play.
“I thought early on the jitters got to us a little bit,” Owls coach Jason Longmeier said. “We didn’t do a good job of executing our game plan against the (defensive) press. Once we settled in, they got out of the press. The press was a factor. They’re just so solid in their half-court defense it made it hard to get some open looks.”
After a technical foul was called on the Owls at the start of the second quarter, they went on to score just seven points to trail at halftime 32-17.
Mikayla Fee opened up the third quarter with a rare 3-pointer and converted an and-one opportunity for the Owls’ first two possessions.
The closest the Owls would get the rest of the way followed after a 3-pointer from Maci Lubker with around three-and-a-half minutes left before the fourth quarter.
Trailing 46-29 at the start of the final period, the Stars converted two and-one chances to seal a perfect 22-0 season.
The Owls were in foul trouble early in the game, and saw Fee and Ritz foul out midway through the final quarter.
“Griffin had two early fouls which changed the way we worked defensively,” Longmeier said. “We didn’t plan on Pollmann being on McBryde the entire game. Because she has to play so hard on defense it took away some of her offense.”
Lubker led the Owls with 13 points and Fee came next with nine.
McBryde, a candidate for Miss Basketball, led the Stars with 20 points.
“You take the first quarter jitters away, the 26 made free throws they made and I thought the defensive game plan was good. I thought we limited (Jenna) Allen and (Alexa) Bailey and McBryde came up big for them.”
The Owls finish their 2014-15 regular season campaign at 17-6 and will play the winner of New Albany and Bedford North Lawrence in the Jeffersonville sectional Jan. 13.