Lady Owls defeat Greensburg 74-53

The Seymour girls basketball team jumped on top of Greensburg 25-9 after one quarter of play and rolled to a 74-53 win Saturday afternoon in the Lloyd E. Scott gymnasium.

“I thought the game was decided in the first five minutes,” Owls Coach Jason Longmeier said, “That’s big for us. It seemed that we really got some confidence going our way early and we continued to play off of that.”

Grace Schrader, Journee Brown, Kendall Sterling and Brooke Trinkle scored one basket apiece in the first 2:15 to help the Owls open a 9-2 lead.

Sterling stayed hot throughout the first period by shooting 4-for-5 from the floor, including a pair of 3-pointers, and she was 3-for-3 at the free-throw line for 12 points in the opening quarter to spark her team to the early lead.

Trinkle had three 2-pointers in the first period, a pair of threes in the second and finished with 16 points.

Sterling, who topped the Owls with 21 points, said “I think we’re starting to come together a lot better offensively. We did OK defensively but we’re still trying to build on that.

“When we hit threes early we like to fall back on that a lot, but we try to work all around and get all depths of the game in scoring.”

The 74 points is a season-high for the Owls.

Longmeier said he liked the hustle of Schrader and Greer Henry.

Henry scored 8 points in the second period and reached double figures for the first time in a varsity game with 12.

“Greer gave us a lot of energy early on,” Longmeier said. “I thought Grace came in and played with a lot of energy and those things kind of got our whole group going, and when you shoot the way we shot the ball in the first half you’re going to put yourself in a position to win.

“I think we were 6-for-10 from three in the first half, and 11-for-14 from (2 pointers). When you’re doing that, it’s a big deal and that’s how you score 45 points in a half.”

Longmeier was also pleased with the defense that held the Pirates to 6-for-21 shooting and forced 10 turnovers in the first half.

“We made early adjustments with the press,” he said. “We started getting our front line back a little bit and more than anything I think it really slowed them down.

“In the second half when we got out of the press (Mylie) Wilkison really got going and when you let her get going downhill she’s really tough to handle. In the first half I thought our press really kept her from doing that. There was no reason for us to stay in the press. I’ve got a lot of respect for Jason (Simpson) and his (Greensburg) program.”

Wilkison, a freshman, scored 26 points.

The Owls made 10 3-pointers, three by Kendall Sterling, two each by Trinkle and Eliza Cash, and one each from Schrader, Henry and Kendrick Sterling.

Seymour, 3-0 at home and 3-2 overall, will go to Bloomington South Tuesday and to Brownstown Central Thursday.

“These three games have been at home and it’s easier to play at home,” Longmeier said. “Now we’ve got to carry it to the road. Bloomington South is down a little bit right now but they’re still going to be tough, and we’ve got a tough one against Brownstown.”

“If we just keep the intensity like we have at home we should be good,” Kendall Sterling said.