For The Tribune
JEFFERSONVILLE
With several good practices this week, Seymour girls basketball coach Jason Longmeier was expecting a strong performance against two-time defending state champion Bedford North Lawrence on Friday night in the Jeffersonville Class 4A Sectional.
The Stars wouldn’t allow that to happen as they jumped on top 17-2 after the first quarter, then increased their lead to 39-9 at the half and ran to a 72-27 win.
Seymour shot 1-for-10 and committed six turnovers in the opening period.
Those numbers left the Owls with too big of a hill to climb against the No. 1-ranked Stars.
“I thought they took the attack to us, and we were kind of on our heels, and didn’t counter-punch the way I expected we would counter-punch,” Longmeier said. “I thought we had a good week of practice, I thought the girls were focused. I thought we would come in here and play better than we did. At then end of the day it just wasn’t our day.”
A basket by the Owls’ Kayla Griffin tied the game at 2-2 before the Stars scored the final 15 points of the opening quarter.
The Stars continued with an 8-0 run over the first 2:43 in the second quarter for a 25-2 lead.
Lauren James broke the streak for the Owls with a layup at 5:02, Griffin followed with a 3-pointer, and Mikayla Fee scored on a move to the basket for a 31-9 score with 2:40 left before halftime.
While the Owls were done scoring in the first half, the Stars were not as they closed on an 8-0 run.
The Owls had 11 turnovers, and shot only 4-for-21 in the first half.
“(BNL) is so good defensively that they put us behind the eight-ball and really forced us high out on the perimeter, and took a lot of our drives away, and I felt the entire first half we were one dribble shy,” Longmeier said. “I thought if we could have got one more dribble to the basket then we would have put some pressure on them to maybe commit some fouls, or get some baskets, and we just pulled up on it a little bit slow each time.”
The Stars were called for eight fouls in the game, and the Owls shot only two free throws, both by Griffin in the fourth period.
Morgan Ritz scored five points in both the third and fourth quarters and topped the Owls with 10 points, while Fee was the top rebounder for her team with four.
Bedford North Lawrence had five players with nine or more points, topped by Dominique McBryde with 14. Jenna Allen led in rebounds with 11.
Longmeier said BNL’s role players stepped up and had a big influence on the final outcome.
“They are going to be really tough to beat if their other kids play that well,” he said. “I thought as good as McBryde was, and as good as Allen was, it was the group around them that really made the difference. They made shots that we hadn’t seen them make all year, and it made it tough for us to match up with them.”
The Stars finished shooting 26-for-51 from the floor.
“We’ve got to play better down the stretch and I felt that we were playing really well after the New Albany game, and after the Scottsburg game,” Longmeier said. “It’s a long season and the grind kind of got to us.”
The Owls finish 17-7 on the 2014-15 campaign.
BNL (24-0) will face Jeffersonville (15-10) in the championship game tonight after the Red Devils topped Floyd Central 51-41 in the second game Friday.