ST. LEON
Hamilton Heights scored the final 11 points of Friday’s game against Seymour to post a 58-45 win in the East Central Holiday Tournament.
Grace Meyer scored a career-high 33 points in the opening game against Shelbyville for a 55-34 win.
Grace Schrader made two free throws with 4:40 remaining to cut Hamilton’s lead to 47-45 but the Owls were unable to score again.
“We just couldn’t get to their people against Hamilton,” Owls’ coach Jason Longmeier said. “I think what you really saw was five kids playing an awful lot of minutes.
“In the first game we didn’t get out as well as we wanted to, so we had to play some players a little bit more than we wanted to. We should have (defended) their guards sooner. We hoped to get a little more rest in that game.
“We came out against Hamilton Heights and I thought the biggest difference in the game in the fourth quarter they were able to get to the rim a lot more than we were.
“I thought (Jillian) Oswald really hurt us doing that and (Mykayla Moran) killed us on the bunnies. We should have been out on them sooner with our guards. There are some things we can clean in that area.
“I thought our kids played hard in both games today. We’re just not equipped to play two games in a day to be honest.”
The Owls fell behind 7-0 at the start before Grace Schrader’s 3-point play got the offense started.
Meyer and Alyssa Perry hit 3-pointers as the Owls trailed 14-13 at the quarter.
Perry made two 3s in the second quarter as Seymour trailed 32-30 at the half.
A basket by Schrader gave the Owls their final lead of the night at 35-32.
Meyer scored 17, Schrader added 13, Perry scored nine, Aidan Hiester had five, Jamya Miller had two and Brooke Trinkle added one. Schrader topped the Owls (5-9) in rebounds with 12.
Owls top Bears
In the first game, the Owls held 12-10 lead with two minutes remaining in the first period when they went on a 19-1 run to take control of the game.
The Owls scored the final eight points of the first period to lead 20-10, then increased its lead to 24-10 on a layup by Schrader.
Meyer scored nine points in the second quarter to help the Owls lead 33-19 at the half.
The Bears cut Seymour’s lead to 35-24 early in the third quarter before the Owls bounced back to take a 43-26 lead into the final period.
Schrader finished with 11 points, Hiester scored four, and Miller and Perry three each.
“Meyer had a nice game,” Longmeier said. “She’s playing on a bum knee right now and giving us everything she has. You saw that late in the game. She wasn’t able to get to the rim because of that.”
The Seymour Junior Varsity defeated Hamilton Heights 50-47 after losing to East Central 61-49.
Kendrick Sterling topped Seymour against Hamilton with 18, Trinkle scored 12, Kaylee Waskom and Cali Cummings scored seven each, Eliza Cash scored five, and Emilee East scored one.
Cash was high scorer against East Central with 15, Sterling scored 12, Waskom added nine, Lexi Morris scored five, Trinkle scored three, Cummings and East scored two each, and Lainey Jackson added one.
Meyer topped the Owls in rebounds with 15 and Schrader had 13.
The Owls will play East Central today at 9 a.m., and then play a team from the other bracket.