An ice cold second half offense prevented any upsets at the Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium on Friday night.

Seymour’s boys basketball team recorded just 10 second-half points in a 39-27 loss to Class 4A No. 16 Floyd Central in a Hoosier Hills Conference contest.

Trailing 5-4 with 4:29 in the first quarter, the Owls (5-10, 2-4 HHC) went on an 8-0 run sparked by an and-one conversion by Tiller Cummings and ending with a basket by Ty McCory to lead 12-5 with 51 ticks on the clock.

The Highlanders (11-3, 4-1 HHC) responded with baskets from Evan Nichols and Luke Gohmann to cut their deficit to 9-8 after eight minutes of play.

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The Owls’ offense sputtered in the second quarter as Alan Perry scored all five of the team’s points before intermission.

Floyd Central went on a 6-0 run midway through the second quarter and ended on a 3-pointer by Gabe Shireman and dunk from Trevor Apple to lead 22-17 at intermission.

Seymour turned the ball over five times in the second quarter.

Owls coach Tyler Phillips liked the defensive pressure in the first half from the team.

“We were throwing different trap schemes in our zone,” Phillips said. “If they were going to score, we were going to make them take their time doing it. We tried to keep them guessing and out of a flow.”

In the third quarter, the Owls recorded just four points.

The Highlanders went on a 10-0 scoring run, led by five points from Cobie Barnes, to lead 34-18 with 1:24 on the clock.

A 3-pointer by McCory stopped the bleeding, but the Owls trailed 34-21 after 24 minutes.

Dylan Wilson hit a pair of free throws and Cummings and Alex Hofer added baskets before the Highlanders held on to the ball for the final 1:30 in the game.

Phillips said the Highlanders’ length especially caused issues for the Owls’ offense in the final 16 minutes.

“They had a 1-3-1 (defense), and if they put their arms up they touched sideline to sideline,” Philips said. “The way to beat a 1-3-1 is to make two commit and then you kick (the ball). They never committed. They used that length to keep us out of scoring zones. (Floyd) played a nice defensive game tonight.”

Gohman topped all scorers with 13 points and McCory and Perry each had seven for the Owls.

SHS won the rebounding battle 19-15, but had 14 turnovers to the Highlanders’ nine giveaways.

“I liked how the kids came out with a sense of urgency,” Phillips said. They knew if they were going to get this one, they would have to play really well and pay attention to detail. They did that, but my question is if we can do that every night. I want to see us do that every night. If we did that every night, our record would be flipped.”