The Seymour girls basketball team built up a 29-16 halftime lead against Greenwood Saturday afternoon in the Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium.

The Woodsmen took advantage of cold shooting and turnovers by the Owls to go on an 11-2 run to make it a 31-27 game halfway through the third period.

Kendall Sterling came down and hit a 3-pointer and Grace Schrader added another 3 with 2:05 left in the quarter, and the Owls had the momentum back.

“The thing that stood out for me was when they went on a run and cut it to four, dealing with the adversity that we did in game one and game two against two really tough opponents, I thought our kids responded well by coming back and pushing that lead back to 10,” head coach Jason Longmeier said.

Sterling scored a layup in the closing seconds to help the Owls open a 39-27 lead at the end of the third period on the way to a 48-38 win.

Before the game,several veterans were escorted onto the court by the players and were introduced.

“We needed to come back from the points that they scored with six big points. That really helped,” Longmeier said.

He said he liked the way his team opened the game.

“I thought we came out with a better start and a better purpose than what we had in game one and game two,” Longmeier said. “I thought we made some early shots and rebounded the ball well early on,which allowed us to get out in transition and get some easy buckets, which at this point in time we really needed. We needed something to happen early in our favor. We had a good start at Salem, 12-12 at the end of the first quarter, but then we allowed some things to get away from us.”

Schrader also said the start was a key to the win.

“We had a lot of energy, and that for sure helped us get a good start, get a lead and helped us keep the lead,” she said.

Sterling hit a 3-pointer on Seymour’s opening possession to help her team lead all the way. Schrader made her first 3 at 2:45 for a 10-2 lead and force Woodsmen coach Justin Bennett to call a timeout.

Schrader knocked down another 3 and Sterling hit a short jumper late in the period for a 17-9 lead at the end of the quarter.

A pair of free throws by Journee Brown at 4:17 of the second quarter gave the home team a 23-9 lead, a basket by Sterling gave the Owls their biggest lead of the afternoon, 29-12, with 1:12 remaining before the Woodsmen scored the final four points of the half.

Schrader hit three 3-pointers and finished with 12 points. Sterling and Brooke Trinkle each grabbed six rebounds to help the Owls to a 28-25 advantage on the boards.

Schrader said, “We had to control the turnovers and beat the press and I think we did a better job of that.”

Lily Howe topped the Woodsmen (1-3) with 16 points and Quinn Kelly had 10 rebounds.

The Owls made 17-of-49 shots from the floor while Greenwood made 14-of-54. Seymour committed 20 turnovers and Greenwood had 13.

Longmeier said, “We’ve been battling turnovers. We had 23 in game one and 19 (at Silver Creek). We’ve got to continue to work on the ball handling skills in practice. It will get better.”

The Owls (1-2) will host Batesville Friday, and Longmeier said he will have his team work on defense this week.

The Owls lost 80-50 at Silver Creek on Friday. Trinkle was high scorer for the Owls with 19 points.