BEDFORD
The race for the top spot in the Hoosier Hills Conference may already be decided, but there was still plenty of league pride on the line Friday night for the Seymour Owls boys basketball team.
In a low-scoring affair, the Bedford North Lawrence Stars didn’t set the gym ablaze but did enough to stymie the visiting Owls 40-26.
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It’s the lowest offensive output of the season for the Owls.
Seymour had been sitting at .500 within the HHC entering the game with a chance to vault their way up the standings with a win. Yet, even though Stars weren’t overwhelming, the Owls were held in check and struggled to gain any offensive momentum.
Turnovers and rebounding were the key detriments for the Owls against the Stars.
The Owls committed more turnovers than made shots in Bedford. They coughed up the ball 15 times across four quarters with 11 of them coming in just the first half alone. The Owls managed just 10 made field goals for the game.
Seymour coach Kirk Manns noted the amount of turnovers resulted in too many missed offensive opportunities.
“We turned the ball over 11 times in the first half,” Manns said. “You’re not going to beat any team, especially a team as hard as they were playing, turning the ball over like that. You turn the ball over 11 times in the first half and that’s 11 times you don’t get a shot.
“If you turn the ball over four or five times, like you probably would in a game, it’s probably a different half and probably a different game.”
Most of those field goals belonged to freshman Landon Fritsch, who has played his way into a larger varsity role for the Owls. After getting his first taste of varsity minutes a few games ago against Charlestown, Fritsch has come alive to be another offensive weapon for Seymour.
He led the Owls with 12 points and hit all three of their free throws for the game. He scored the majority of his points in the fourth quarter and his shot in the arm late for the Owl offense got the game within 10 before the Stars responded with a 7-0 run.
Eric McCoy added eight points with six of those coming from behind the 3-point line. Drew Vehslage chipped in four and Jayden Brown rounded out the scoring with two.
“I think they challenged us,” Manns said of his team’s shooting woes. “You could tell all week they were challenged to guard hard, they were pushing us out, they were giving us all kinds of problems and I think we didn’t answer the bell tonight.”
Rebounding too was a major issue for the Owls.
The Stars hauled in 24 boards while the Owls struggled to grab just 13 for the game. Marcus Brooks was the leading rebound getter for Seymour with four.
Many of those Star rebounds were on the offensive end that resulted in plenty of second-chance opportunities.
In the junior varsity game, the Owls nearly erased a 14-point deficit to come back and defeat the Stars. Down 21-7 at the halftime break, the Owls outscored the Stars 19-9 in the second half, but fell 30-26.
Brandon Kleber, Dylan Fields and Andrew Levine each scored six to lead the Owls in scoring. Owen Marshall, Donovyn Thomas and Charlie Longmeier each netted two, while Will Cottrill and Eli Meyer each tallied a point.
The Owls are back in action tonight against Scottsburg at 7 p.m. Seymour lost a close one to the Warriors 54-46 last season in Scott County.