SALEM — Coach Jason Longmeier likes the way his Seymour Lady Owls basketball team has performed on defense the first two games of the season.
“I think right now, we can hang our hat on our defensive effort, and it’s going to get more challenging,” he said after the Owls rolled over Salem 58-22 on the Lions’ floor Saturday night.
The Owls also won 49-14 at Southport on Thursday night.
“These are two teams that are rebuilding a little bit and playing some younger kids and have some inexperience,” Longmeier said.
“More than anything, it allows us to get on the court and get us ready for the run that we’re going to have to have coming up in the next couple weeks.”
Both teams started out slow Saturday night before Kendall Sterling hit a 3-pointer for the Owls at the 5: 14 mark. Emmy Munson added another 3 at 1:10, and Sterling scored her second bucket with 47 seconds left in the opening period as Seymour led 8-2 going into the second period.
Seymour’s offense shifted into high gear in the second and third periods with 22- and 20-point outbursts.
Jaidyn Nichols opened the scoring in the second period with a 3-pointer and scored nine points in the period, Journee Brown got hot underneath with five baskets, and Sterling added another 3-pointer for a 30-8 cushion at the break.
“We made some shots in the second quarter and kind of got some things going,” Longmeier said. “I thought Jaidyn came out with some energy in the second quarter and got out ahead of them in some press situations and got some easy buckets, and that kind of got us going.”
Longmeier said he felt like the first 16 minutes were an outstanding half for his team.
“We’ve just got to continue to build off of it,” he said. “I’d like to see us a little more crisp against a zone, but that’s just a lack of preparation against a zone at this point.”
Seymour warmed up its 3-point game in the third quarter when Kenzie Gagner hit two baskets from long range, Sterling hit another 3 and Sophie Skidmore got in on the 3-point fun with a long one of her own as Seymour boosted its lead to 50-18 going into the fourth quarter.
Eight girls scored for the Owls, topped by Sterling with 13, Brown with 12 and Nichols with 11. The Owls finished with 13 2s and nine 3s.
“We’re going to have to shoot the 3s. We’re just going to have to make it at a higher clip,” Longmeier said. “If you can shoot 33 percent or so from the three-point line, that is a plus.”
“Our key to winning right now is just really getting out and running, not sliding,” Nichols, a senior, said. “Longmeier has really helped us work at practice just sprinting out to shooters. We knew tonight, they would be more active on the 3-point line, so we had to sprint them off, and we did our job rotating at the bottom to make sure that they had tough twos to make, as well.”
She said she likes the way the Owls are balanced on offense.
“As long as we have our feet right and pass the ball, get it rotating on the perimeter, I think teams will have a hard time, especially with all the shooters that we have,” Nichols said. “We really work in practice getting all our conditioning up to date. It’s hard to get back into everything, but I’m pretty sure we’re getting there.”
Salem had only six field goals for the night. Burton topped the Lions with eight points.
Skidmore topped the Owls in rebounds with seven, and Brown had six.
Longmeier said he liked the way his team was aggressive on the boards.
“We should have won the glass tonight because I think we have an advantage there against them, so I thought we did a good job with that,” he said.
The Owls had only eight turnovers, and Longmeier said he was pleased with the ball handling in the first two games.
Seymour will play at Silver Creek on Friday night and will host Greensburg on Saturday afternoon.
High School Basketball
Seymour;8;22;20;8;–;58
Salem;2;6;10;4;–;22
Seymour (2-0): Jaidyn Nichols 5 0-0 11, Journee Brown 6 0-2 12, Kendall Sterling 5 0-0 13, Emmy Munson 1 0-0 3, Sophie Skidmore 1 0-0 3, Claire Marshall 3 1-1 7, Kenzie Gagner 2 0-2 6, Claire Skaggs 1 0-0 3, Emmy Followell 0 0-0 0, team 24 1-5 58
Salem (0-1): Sidney Burton 2 4-6 8, Maggie Gibson 1 2-2 4, Kendall Hickey 1 0-0 3, Alli Clodfelter 1 0-0 3, Lanie Roberts 0 2-2 2, Kirsten Sexton 1 0-0 2, Sarah Heightchew 0 0-3 0, team 6 8-13 22
3-point goals: Seymour (Sterling 3, Gagner 2, Nichols, Munson, Skidmore, Skaggs), Salem (Clodfelter, Hickey)
Rebounds: Seymour 26 (Skidmore 7, Brown 6), Salem 26 (Burton 8, Roberts 7)
Turnovers: Seymour 8, Salem 24
Fouls: Seymour 11, Salem 9
Junior varsity
Seymour 27, Salem 24
Seymour (1-1): Skaggs 9, Kennedy Burnette 8, Followell 3, Abby Otte 2, Nichols 2, Avah Kriete 2, Kelsea Hunsley 1