BLOOMINGTON
Seymour’s boys basketball team seemingly gave up half a foot in height and a full step in speed at each position on the floor against Bloomington North on Saturday night, and that physical mismatch was reflected in the final score.
Pressuring the Owls from one end of the floor to the other, North forced 14 first-half Seymour turnovers and scored 27 of its first 38 points in the paint en route to a 57-30 win.
"They went at the matchup that was good for them, trying to attack our guards," Seymour head coach Tyler Phillips said. "Give them credit, why wouldn’t you? Their guards are 6-3 and ours are 5-9. That’s what they should do. They’re a really good basketball team. Once they got the ball (around the basket), it was too late."
Bloomington North (8-3) ended the night with 34 points in the paint, 12 points from the foul line and just 11 points from the field. In the game’s opening seven minutes, the Cougars converted seven Owl turnovers into 13 transition points and a 17-5 lead.
In Seymour’s previous two games, fast starts led to Owl victories. North made sure the Owls couldn’t get going quickly on Saturday.
"For us to have a chance tonight, we were going to have to control the tempo, control the time of possession and keep the score low," Phillips said. "Instead, they forced the tempo on us and exerted their will. They got us down early and we couldn’t recover."
North built its first-half lead to 25-11 and then used a 13-0 run to start the second half to deepen the Owls’ deficit to 38-13.
Friday’s loss ended Seymour’s two-game win streak and dropped the Owls’ season record to 3-8.
Senior Jack Roberts followed up his 15-point effort against Charlestown with 13 points on Saturday to lead all scorers. Braden Christopher came off the bench to add nine points for the Owls.
Seymour shot just 11-for-33 from the field on Saturday, including zero-for-11 from 3-point range. The Owls’ normally productive backcourt was limited to seven points on 2-for-11 shooting.
"For us to play with teams like that, we’re going to have to shoot the ball well," Phillips said. "We got a lot of good looks at the rim, inside and out, but we just didn’t shoot the ball well tonight. You combine that with our turnovers and we put ourselves behind the eight ball."
In addition to his scoring, Christopher had a team-high five rebounds. Colin Madden followed with four rebounds.
Despite Saturday’s result, Phillips wasn’t ready to forget the positives his team showed in its last two games.
"I like where we are," Phillips said. "I know that sounds funny coming from a 3-8 team, but I like where we are right now. The Switzerland County and Charlestown games were the best two-game stretch we’ve had all year. These guys are hungry to get better and they’ll come in Monday with that attitude."