Seymour outscored Rushville 37-17 over the last three periods to post a 48-34 win in a girls basketball game Thursday morning in the Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium.

The Lions held a 17-11 lead at the end of the first quarter before the Owls turned things around with an 11-2 burst in the second to lead 22-19 at the break.

Brooke Trinkle hit her first two 3-pointers of the game to keep the Owls close early before the Lions went on a 12-5 run to increase their lead.

Seymour scored the first nine points of the second period as Greer Henry began the rally with a rebound basket, Kendall Sterling made two field goals, including a 3-pointer, and Journee Brown scored off of another offensive rebound to make it a 20-17 score with 4:52 left in the half.

Claire Marshall closed the first half scoring with another offensive rebound basket for a 22-19 lead at the half.

After the Lions scored the first basket of the third period, Sterling hit another 3-pointer between 2-pointers by Elizabeth Kirby and Marshall for a 29-21 lead.

Trinkle hit another 3-pointer midway through the fourth period, but the remainder of the Owls’ 13 points of the period came on layups.

Sterling topped the Owls with 13 points, Trinkle scored 11 and Brown 10. Marshall had nine rebounds and Brown had six rebounds to help the Owls dominate the boards 31-17.

“We’ve been working hard, and after the tough loss (at Greensburg) on Tuesday, we really wanted this one going into the break,” Trinkle said.

All three of Trinkle’s 3s came from the left wing, and she said she likes that spot.

“We’re always crossing when we run an offense, so Greer and I, the 2 and 3, will cross, so I’ve been getting a lot of shots on the left side recently, and luckily, some of them are going in for me,” she said.

“(Coach Jason) Longmeier talked to us at halftime and said he really wanted to keep them under 40, so we really got after them defensively, and I think we talked a lot better the second half,” Trinkle said.

Rushville made 13 field goals for the game and just six over the final 24 minutes.

The Lions played zone through most of the first three periods and switched to man-to-man in the fourth to try and force the Owls to speed things up on offense.

“Once they came out man, we just ran our plays and got what we wanted,” Trinkle said.

“At that point, we had figured the zone out a little bit,” Longmeier said. “ I think it took us a little bit of time to adjust. We didn’t utilize the high post early. Even though in the first half we got pretty good looks from 3-point range, I thought they were a little early. They zoned us because they knew they were going to struggle with our size. We bailed them out in the first half by not making them not defend into that high and low post.”

Longmeier said Lainey Jackson came in and did a really good job of occupying the high post and occupying a couple of defenders that really started to open some other things up.

The Owls, who did not shoot a free throw all game, made 15 field goals, and all five starters scored at least two buckets.

“I thought from a balance standpoint, coach (Kerry) Reinhart and I talked about this (after the game), it was arguably the best game of the year for us of getting everybody involved,” Longmeier said. “I know some people look at 48 points as not a whole lot of points, but with that being said, it was the manner in which we got them. It was the possessions that we had. I thought they were really solid possessions.

“I thought we had three or four possessions in the second half where we had the ball between 35 and 45 seconds, and we ended up getting a layup out of those,” he said. “Then I thought defensively, we forced them to use some clock. I think three or four times, they used 35 to 40 seconds and didn’t get a score, so we were able to control the clock with our defense, as well.”

The Owls are 10-4 heading into a Jan. 3 game at Scottsburg.

“We could easily be sitting here with 12 wins. I think there were a couple games that coulda, shoulda, woulda. You’re learning with a young team as you go,” Longmeier said. “This team just keeps getting better. Even at Greensburg, we got better. It was just one of those nights defensively, we weren’t locked in. What we can’t do, we can’t sacrifice our defense for our offense. Today, we got back to that.”

Box score

Owls 48, Lions 34

Rushville;17;2;9;6;—;34

Seymour;11;11;13;13;—;48

Seymour (10-4): Kendall Sterling 5 0-0 13, Brooke Trinkle 4 0-0 11, Journee Brown 5 0-0 10, Claire Marshall 3 0-0 6, Greer Henry 2 0-0 4, Elizabeth Kirby 1 0-0 2, Lainey Jackson 1 0-0 2, Jaidyn Nichols 0 0-0 0, Totals 21 0-0 48

Rushville (6-7): Briley Munchel 3 0-0 8, Kylee Herbert 1 0-0 3, Olivia Smith 1 0-2 2, Belle Gossett 2 0-0 5, Gracie Buzzard 1 2-2 4, Kiley Parsley 2 0-0 5, Leonie Boyer 3 1-2 7, Totals 13 3-6 34

3-point goals: S 6 (Trinkle 3, Sterling 3) R 5 (Munchel 2, Herbert, Gossett, Parsley)

Rebounds: S 31 (Henry 9, Brown 6), R 17

Junior varsity

Rushville 39, Seymour 37