Seymour’s boys basketball team got off to its best start of the season, and led throughout, in Friday night’s 54-42 win over Charlestown in the Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium.
The Owls held a 12-2 lead after six minutes of play, led 12-9 after the first period, and after giving up the lead on one trip down the floor in the second period, held the upper hand the rest of the way in picking up its second straight win.
Jack Roberts and Eric McCoy scored six points each to spark the Owls to the early lead.
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“It’s about time,” Owls coach Tyler Phillips said about the start. “It’s the first time we’ve jumped out on a team. It’s the first time that I didn’t have to take the first time out.
“We knew were capable of coming out and starting like that. We just finally put it in play and the kids came out with a sense of urgency. They were the aggressor offensively and defensively. They let their defense get some easy buckets for them. It’s always a better start when you can do that.”
The Owls had 12 turnovers for the game and the Pirates had 19.
The Pirates went on a 11-0 run at the end of the first period and opening minute of the second to lead 13-12 before the Owls went to their perimeter game as Payton Reasoner hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Elijah Corwin added a trio, and R.J. Kleber followed with a layup for an 11-2 run and a 23-15 lead with 2:20 remaining in the half.
Braden Christopher, Kleber and Owen Marshall added five free throws in the final 1:46 to put the Owls on top 27-18 at the break.
“We executed the game plan tonight to a ‘T,’” Phillips said. “We guarded them exactly like the scouting report says. The kids did a really nice job of being prepared mentally for this game, and they came out and they executed it.”
The Owls (3-7) were leading 33-23 midway through the third period when they went on a 6-0 run behind two baskets by Roberts and a layup by Aiden Goen to open up a 39-23 lead for their biggest lead of the night.
The Owls held a 41-29 lead going into the fourth period and sealed the win behind baskets by Reasoner and Christopher, and 9 of 15 free throws.
Roberts topped the Owls with 15 points, McCoy added nine and Reasoner eight.
“Early in the year, Jack was capable of that,” Phillips said. “We just weren’t looking for him. I don’t know if it was that we just didn’t trust our inside game, or we weren’t applying it. Our bigs are really starting to be aggressive and demand the basketball inside and it’s opening up a lot of things for us.”
The Pirates shot 10 free throws in the fourth period.
“If you can hold a team to 10 or 11 points a quarter you’re going to win a lot of basketball games,” Phillips said. “We had them at 18 at half. We’ve got to play without fouling. We kept giving them opportunities to score with the clock stopped.”
Courtland Black topped the Pirates (6-4) with 11 points.
The Owls will travel to Bloomington North tonight.