Kendall Sterling received the points, rebounds and assists awards when the Seymour girls basketball team held its awards program in the Seymour High School cafeteria Wednesday night.

Owls coach Jason Longmeier said that is the first time he has had a player lead his team in those three categories in the same season.

Sterling scored 249 points, had 113 rebounds and handed out 73 assists.

She averaged 11.6 points per game and scored 21 points against Greensburg and 19 against Greenwood and Rushville.

Sterling, a sophomore, was named to the all-Hoosier Hills Conference team. She averaged 9.75 points in conference games with a high of 17 against Floyd Central.

Brooke Tinkle was named all-HHC honorable mention, and she received the most improved award. She averaged 12 points per game this season.

“You have to look at what she did and how she played the game,” Longmeier said.

What she did was score 233 points in 20 games for an average of 11.65 with 21 points against Charlestown and 19 against Silver Creek and Columbus East.

Kendrick Sterling received the Coaches Award. Longmeier said that honor goes to someone who shows up every day and does her job.

“I always tried to keep everybody up,” Kendrick said.

Her high point game was 10 against Columbus North.

Freshman Greer Henry received the Scrapper Award.

“That goes to someone who is willing to do the dirty work,” Longmeier said. “She was not on my radar at the beginning of the season. We found out how hard of a worker she was.”

She worked her way into the starting lineup early in the season and had high point games of 12 against Greensburg and 10 against Madison.

One of the favorite things Longmeier likes to talk about is academics.

He said all-four senior players — Kendrick Sterling, Eliza Cash, Kaylee Waskom and Grace Schrader — are excellent students. Schrader and Waskom were named to the academic all-state team.

“The seniors did a great job of showing the way,” Longmeier said. “I’m proud to have coached all four seniors. They accepted their roles and did what we asked of them to make for a more successful season. They were ahead of the game in a lot of areas.”

He also announced the Hoosier Basketball Coaches Association presents an Honors Court Award to teams that carry a grade point average of 3.2 or higher, and all of the players on the sectional team had averages above 3.6 and the entire team had a cumulative GPA of 3.8.

The Owls were 11-11 overall and 2-3 in the Hoosier Hills Conference, as they did not play Jeffersonville because of COVID-19 cancellations.

Longmeier said going in, he felt the team could post between 11 and 15 wins.

“We weren’t that far away from having a season better than I expected,” he said.

The Owls were 2-2 in games decided by five points or less.

“We played the 47th toughest schedule in the state,” Longmeier said. “We played eight teams ranked in the top 64. We played four teams that won sectionals and two teams that advanced to semistates.”

The top of the HHC was extremely strong with Columbus East, Bedford North Lawrence and Jennings County combining to win 60 games. East won the HHC title.

When Seymour defeated New Albany 59-47 in the sectional, it marked the Owls’ first sectional game win since 2012.

“New Albany was the best game we played all season,” Longmeier said. “We played a terrific 16 minutes against Jennings County. We were 16 minutes away from playing for a sectional championship.”

Junior varsity coach Amanda Gerth introduced members of her team and said Jaidyn Nichols was chosen as the most improved player.

The JV team had a record of 12-6 and scored 50 or more points in nine games.

“Our program is headed in the right direction,” Gerth said and told the returning players “don’t be satisfied.”

She said the varsity and JV girls participated in three community projects this winter.