Tentative at the start and faltering at the end, Seymour’s boys basketball team hurt itself repeatedly with unforced errors and allowed Jeffersonville to pull away to a convincing 64-46 victory Tuesday night.
The Owls finished with 16 turnovers, 13 of them in the first and fourth quarters.
Seymour’s six first-quarter errors allowed Jeff to race to a 17-7 lead, quickly knocking the Owls on their heels. Seven errors in the final period, meanwhile, turned a there’s-still-a-chance nine-point game into a no-doubter for Jeffersonville.
The Red Devils outscored Seymour 18-5 over the final eight minutes.
“Turnovers really hurt us,” Seymour coach Kirk Manns said. “I’m not sure Jeffersonville had anything to do with our turnovers in the first half. We got sped up for some reason and in too big a hurry. We gave them too many baskets off of our turnovers.”
During the middle two quarters, the Owls played well, scoring 21 second-quarter points (their best quarter in five games) and working the score down to 48-41 with a chance for the last shot in the third quarter.
Unfortunately for Seymour, the last shot of the third period turned into a momentum shift in favor of Jeffersonville.
The Owls worked the clock down to the final seconds and had what appeared to be an open 3-pointer when Jeff’s 6-foot-1 senior Jaylen Fairman swatted the shot away and took the ball to the opposite end for a layup as the buzzer sounded.
Instead of a potential four-point difference, Jeffersonville carried a nine-point lead into the fourth quarter. Seymour never threatened again.
“That was big momentum swing,” Manns said.
An extremely efficient offense also kept Jeffersonville resistant to any and all Seymour comeback attempts. The Red Devils shot 62 percent from the floor (23 for 37) and 55 percent from 3-point range.
In fact, the Red Devils’ 37 first-half points were the most given up all season by Seymour’s normally stingy defense. The Red Devils got there by shooting 71 percent in the first two quarters, including five 3s on just seven attempts.
Jeffersonville was led by Brandon Rayzer-Moore, who scored a game-high 26 points and knocked down five 3-pointers. Fairman added 16, while Will Lovings-Watts ended with 13.
Seymour’s offense showed promise, too, while generating 30 first-half points, the team’s best opening half since scoring 31 against Salem in mid-December. The Owls ended with a season-high five 3-pointers and shot 50 percent both from the field and from 3-point range.
Casey Regruth matched his best scoring night of the season, finishing with 18 points on 7-for-12 shooting. The 6-foot-4 junior had two 3-pointers and scored nine of Seymour’s 11 points in the third quarter.
Sophomore Landon Fritsch followed with 12 points, powered by a 10-point spurt in the second quarter that included two 3s.
Andrew Levine was the catalyst for Seymour’s second-quarter run. The junior guard assisted on three of the Owls’ first four baskets during that period and finished with five assists.
“We had a good rhythm in the first half shooting the basketball,” Manns said. “But we made very few energy plays. No one hit the floor going after a loose ball, or made a big defensive play. We’ve got to be able to do that. It’s disappointing because we’ve practiced hard. We’ve got to do better.”
Tuesday’s loss dropped Seymour to 8-9 on the season and 2-5 in the Hoosier Hills Conference. Jeffersonville improved to 8-6 overall and 3-2 in the HHC.