SEYMOUR
The Seymour girls basketball team came up with one of its best performances of the season to help head coach Jason Longmeier achieve a milestone Saturday afternoon.
The Owls defeated North Harrison 56-44 in the Lloyd E. Scott gymnasium giving him a record of 100-80 as head coach of the Owls.
Thursday night the Owls opened up an 18-point lead on Columbus East in the first half. On Saturday the Owls held a 27-9 lead late in the second quarter and remained ahead the rest of the game and didn’t allow the Cougars to get any closer than five points with 2:45 remaining in the game.
Longmeier said he was pleased with the toughness the Owls showed Saturday.
“Today I thought our possessions were better,” he said. “We talked a lot on Friday that we felt we let East back in the game by turning the ball over and taking some really quick shots.”
Slowing the game down played a major factor in Saturday’s win.
“Our focus down the stretch is going to be to slow the game down and to limit touches for our opponents,” Longmeier said. “I think the less amount of possessions moving forward is a big deal for us.”
Not only did the Owls bleed clock on Saturday, but they converted many of their patient looks at the basket.
“Not only did we shorten the game with less possessions, but I felt like we took more advantage of those possessions,” Longmeier said. “We got better looks because of it. So, I hope the girls can come back and look on film and really take advantage of that and really use that moving forward.”
The Owls had only four turnovers in the first half and 12 for the game, and a lot of credit for keeping the offense under control goes to senior guard Aidan Heister.
“She’s our senior leader and we have to have that,” Longmeier said. “She’s one of those kids now, she sees the end isn’t too far away and she doesn’t want that to happen. She does not want to go out her senior year on a sour note. She has talked to me and the kids about that. She’s a grinder and she is going to come in every day and she’s going to go to work at practice and she’s going to do the same thing on the floor for us.”
Longmeier said the first half ranks among the best first halves of the season.
“We’ve had some really good (halves),” he said. “We haven’t put a whole lot of 32 minutes together. We’ve had some really good defensive first halves, and then we’ve had some let ups. But offensively and defensively it would be hard to say that this wasn’t one of our best halves.”
The Owls scored the first period with 10 straight points to lead 10-4 at the end of the period.
Seymour was leading 12-6 early in the second period when Grace Meyer and Alyssa Perry hit 3-pointers to spark the hosts to a 15-4 run the rest of the half and to a 27-10 lead at intermission.
The Cougars (11-5) shot only 3-for-22 from the floor in the first half while the Owls were 9-for-23.
The Owls (6-14) slowed down offensively in the third period, but held a 33-25 lead going into the fourth period.
A 3-point play by Meyer with 4:12 remaining put Seymour in front 42-29.
Meyer topped the Owls in scoring with 25 points. Grace Schrader added nine points and topped her team in rebounds with 10.
Perry, Hiester and Eliza Cash scored five each, Jamya miller scored three, and Cali Cummings scored two.
Lucy Robertson, a 6-3 senior, topped Harrison with 15 points and eight rebounds.
“They’re solid, and defensively I thought we made them earn everything they had,” Longmeier said of North Harrison. “I thought we gave up too many offensive rebounds today. You can’t coach 6-3. Not only are they tall but they work really well getting offensive rebounds and made some things tough on us there.”
Harrison won the junior varsity game 36-33. Kendrick Sterling was high scorer for Seymour with 10 points, Kaylee Waskom and Brooke Trinkle scored nine each, Lexi Morris three, and Emilee East and Lainey Jackson one each.
The Owls will travel to Austin Tuesday night.