The Seymour boys basketball team used a strong second half to pull away from Shelbyville and record a 57-44 victory on Tuesday night.

In the first half, it was all about Jaylan Johnson for Seymour as Shelbyville couldn’t seem to figure out how to guard him.

Johnson scored 15 of Seymour’s 22 points to give the team a 22-20 advantage at the half.

“Jaylan is hard to handle,” head coach Kirk Manns said. “Shelbyville doesn’t have a lot of size, so Jaylan was able to impose his will a bit. We wanted to get the ball in there, and we wanted to establish that we can control the ball in the paint, and we did that in the first half.”

Seymour started the second half 4-of-4 from the field with two more field goals from Johnson, a reverse layup from Eli Meyer and a 3-pointer from Landon Fritsch, which was the Owls’ first triple of the game.

It caused Shelbyville to call timeout as Seymour went up double digits at 31-20.

“Offensively in the third quarter, we were efficient,” Manns said. “I think we kind of found the formula in that third quarter.”

But the Golden Bears didn’t go away. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Aidan Asher and Ollie Sandman brought the lead down to just seven at 35-28 and Manns called timeout for the Owls.

“We were struggling to guard,” Manns said. “Bret (Perry) did a really good job on Sandman, but when we got switched up we just backed off a little bit, and he can really shoot.”

Fritsch and Sandman both hit respective 3-pointers for their teams, and then Meyer hit two free throws at the end of the third quarter to put the Owls up 40-31 heading into the fourth.

Charlie Longmeier had a couple really strong drives to the basket in the fourth period to get baskets, and he also set up his teammates with some nice passes and broke the press with his speed.

“I think Charlie has done a really nice job lately of really controlling the game,” Manns said. “He’s been taking care of the basketball, he’s been running the team. I think Charlie has done a really good job this month.”

Seymour’s five starters did all of the scoring on Tuesday night. Johnson led all scorers for the Owls with 21 points, Meyer scored 14, Fritsch 13, Longmeier five and Perry four.

Seymour is now 9-12 this season and has won five of its last six games. The Owls will close their regular season slate out on Friday night at home against Silver Creek before hosting sectionals next week.

Seymour got a bye in sectionals and will await the winner of New Albany and Floyd Central on March 3, a week from this Friday.

“We have to get better this week,” Manns said. “We have to get better tomorrow and Thursday, and we have to perform on Friday, and then we have a couple more days to get better. We’re still at the point where we’re improving, and we have to keep improving and hopefully be at our best next Friday.”

In the junior varsity, Seymour lost 40-37 but had a chance to tie the game at the buzzer. Brady Harpe had 13 points, Ross Pumphrey eight, Nate Fritsch six, Traysean Hawkins three, Aden Kruse three, Parker Thompson two and Tyson Hillian two.