NORTH VERNON
Six minutes into Saturday night’s contest with Jennings County, Seymour’s boys basketball team was shooting 20 percent from the field, had four turnovers and had three starters on the bench with two fouls each.
Worst of all for the Owls, they also trailed on the scoreboard, 15-3.
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That rocky start proved to be too much to overcome, as Jennings County never relented during an eventual 65-46 victory.
“That’s been our (modus operandi) all year,” Seymour head coach Tyler Phillips said. “We’re slow starters. We’re not a team that can do that. We’ve got to be mentally engaged when the ball goes up. Through seven games, we’re not close to that.”
Saturday’s loss extended Seymour’s losing streak to six and dropped the Owls to 1-6 on the season and 0-3 in Hoosier Hills Conference play.
After falling behind early to Jennings County on Saturday, the Owls battled back to within four points at 26-22 midway through the second quarter. RJ Kleber hit four free throws and Eric McCoy made two three pointers to lead the Owls on a 10-2 run that cut Jennings’ advantage to four points.
However, the Panthers (2-4, 1-1 HHC) recovered with a 7-0 run over the final two minutes of the first half to build their lead back to 33-22.
Jennings County then opened the second half with another mini-run that cushioned its lead to 42-26, forcing the Owls to chase an against-the-odds comeback the rest of the night.
Any comeback hopes were dashed by JC’s dominance around the basket, however. The Panthers outrebounded the Owls by a 38-23 count, and their main inside presence, 6-foot-4 senior Josh Pettit, finished with 26 points and 10 boards.
“Give (Jennings County) credit,” Phillips said, “they knew we were going to struggle guarding the block, and they exploited that.”
Boosted by a perfect 10-for-10 night at the foul line, Kleber led all Seymour scorers with 14 points, followed by McCoy, who hit three 3-pointers en route to an 11-point night.
Jayden Brown added eight points, while Braden Christopher ended with a team-high five rebounds.
Coming off the bench to provide productive minutes were Payton Reasoner, who drained a 3-pointer, had a steal and blocked a shot, and Owen Marshall, who hit a 3-pointer and blocked three shots.
On Tuesday at Whiteland, the Owls have one more chance to end their losing streak before heading into the Christmas break. Phillips said to solve his team’s game issues, the focus has to be on practice.
“We can’t show up on Friday to compete,” Phillips said. “We’ve got to compete Monday to Thursday. We’ve got to find guys who are tough and want to compete from Monday to Thursday.”