Seymour’s boys basketball team needed to end 2018 with a win.

The Owls hadn’t won a game in five weeks and had to find a way to get it done before the new year.

Thursday night, the Owls came through at the Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium.

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Seymour led by five points through three quarters before piling on 21 in the final eight minutes of play to register a 57-44 win against Switzerland County.

The win snapped a seven-game losing streak by the Owls.

“I told the boys before the game that I’m really proud of them from the standpoint that they’ve endured,” Seymour coach Tyler Phillips said. “We have gone through some tough times here and have continued to work hard and get better. The boys deserve this one tonight. It was a win we needed for a lot of reasons.”

In the first quarter, the Owls (2-7) led 8-5 four minutes into the game on a pair of 3-pointers from Payton Reasoner.

After two free throws by Eric McCoy put the Owls up 10-7, the Pacers (2-8) finished the quarter on a 6-2 run to lead 15-12.

The Owls trailed until a 9-0 scoring streak — behind six points by McCoy — put them on top 27-20 with 2:20 left in the half.

The Owls led 28-24 at intermission.

At the break, McCoy led the Owls with 10 points, and Jayden Brown had seven. Dalton Tingle had eight points for the Pacers.

The Owls scored eight points and the Pacers added seven to their total in the third quarter, as both team struggled to get any kind of offense rolling.

A basket by Aiden Goen and an and-one conversion by Brown put the Owls up 41-33 two minutes into the fourth quarter.

From there, the Owls never looked back.

After a 5-0 run from the 3:35 to 3:04mark, Kleber knocked down seven of eight free throw attempts to help the Owls hold on for the victory.

Brown led the Owls with 14 points, Kleber added 12 and McCoy totaled 11.

Phillips said the team did a better job of possessing the ball and taking smarter shots on offense.

“The guys are starting to buy in to what we want to do offensively,” he said. “They are starting to realize what our shot needs to look like. They’re pounding inside and not settling. We’re starting to grind out possessions.”

On the game, the Owls were 24-for-31 from the free throw line — including 11-for-15 in the fourth quarter — while the Pacers made 12 of 22 attempts.

“I thought we did a nice job of knocking down free throws when we needed them,” Phillips said. “We didn’t give them extra possessions and took away their first option. We really executed in that fourth quarter.”

Tingle and Zach Weaver each scored 12 to pace the Pacers.

The Owls won the turnover margin 12-21 and rebounding battle 24-22.

Seymour will be off until Jan. 4 when they host Charlestown.

“I think tonight, they learned to trust the process,” Phillips said. “We’ve talked about shot selection all year. When they play with that kind of effort, good things will happen.”