SEYMOUR
Owls’ boys basketball coach Kirk Manns stated after last Saturday’s loss to Scottsburg, his group can’t dig themselves an early hole if they want to win games.
On Friday night against Floyd Central, his players got the message and fought tooth and nail with the Class 4A No. 17 Highlanders. Toughness and defense have been the keys to the Owls’ success, and against Floyd Central they hung tough for about half.
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And then the flood gates slammed shut for the Owls.
Down just six points at halftime, the Owls were held to just two points over the next 13 minutes and 30 seconds and allowed the Highlanders to pull away for the 53-30 victory.
The dramatic shift in the second half from the first was simply due to the Owls getting away from what they work on every day in practice.
“In the first half, we came to compete, we came to fight and we played for each other,” Seymour assistant coach Steve Bush said. “In the second half that got away from us.”
Building confidence in their shot was another key in practice this week for the Owls, and they weren’t afraid to hoist shots against Floyd Central.
The only problem, especially in the second half, was they couldn’t hit anything.
Seymour shot 12-for-33 from the field with eight of those makes coming in a superb first half. It wasn’t much better at the free-throw line where the Owls were just 4 of 8.
Floyd Central, for their part, went just 19-for-40 for the game and 9 of 13 from the free-throw line.
“We took them out of their game from what they’ve done the last three of four games,” Bush said.
Friday night’s fight with the Highlanders was always going to be tough for the Owls.
Yet, before the game even tipped, the Owls were without three players.
Starter Aiden Goen, freshman Landon Fritsch and junior Owen Marshall did not dress for the game, giving the Owls significantly less depth.
Still, the Owls hung around for the first 16 minutes because of their next-man-up mentality.
“One of the messages to the kids is we’ve got to be together, we’ve got to be energized and we’ve got to be disciplined,” Bush said. “In the first half, we did all those things.”
Eric McCoy led the Owls with 10 points, all of those coming in the first half. Drew Vehslage chipped in six, Casey Regruth added five, Marcus Brooks tallied four, Jayden Brown hit a 3-pointer, and Andrew Levine scored two to round out the Seymour scoring.
In junior varsity action, the Owls were unable to get off a shot in the final 3.5 seconds for the game winner or to tie and fell 35-33.
Donovyn Thomas led the Owls with 12 points and was the only player to score in double figures.
Brandon Kleber scored nine, Eli Meyer and Andrew Levine each scored four, and Dylan Fields and Coltin Wetzel each scored two to round out the Owl scoring.
The Owls are back in action next Thursday, Feb. 6 against another HHC rival in Madison. Varsity tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.