Tied at 37 with four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Seymour junior Morgan Ritz scored five-straight points to give her team a 42-37 lead against the Braves.

The Owls were able to

hold on from that point, as the girls basketball team defeated the Braves 54-45 on Thursday in the Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium.

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With the victory, the Owls are now 6-0 this season.

In the first quarter, the Owls came out strong

defensively as they kept the high-octane Braves to just six points. The Owls created havoc the entire quarter by causing the Braves to turn over the ball a handful of times.

Owls junior Kayla Griffin led the Owls in the first quarter’s scoring with six points, as her team amassed a 13-6 lead after eight minutes of play.

The Owls struggled to score in the second quarter by only scoring seven points, but their defense continued to pay dividends — the Owls only gave up six points before the half.

“A lot of it (defensively) had to do with holding Brooke Ebbing down, that was the game plan from the beginning,” Owls coach Jason Longmeier said.“I felt that if we could hold Ebbing under 20 points, I didn’t see any way they could beat us. I thought we kept them off rhythm tonight.”

The third quarter saw the Braves start to close the 20-12 gap, as they scored 16 points to the 13 points from the Owls.

In the fourth quarter, the game got interesting.

The Braves started the quarter on a 12-1 run thanks to a couple of baskets from Jaelyn Reynolds, a three from Ally Lorenzo and two baskets from Madison Klinge.

Despite their best efforts, the Braves wouldn’t get a lead in the final quarter and fell to 3-2 on

the season.

“They did a heck of a job battling,” Longmeier said. “When the game could have got away from them they kept it on track. That’s a good basketball team we played tonight — they’re going to make a lot of noise in Class 3A.”

Ritz finished with 13 points for the Owls.

“That’s kind of what happened to us every game, every game where we’ve been pushed against the wall someone different has answered the bell — and that’s what I like about this team,” Longmeier said.

“Every night it’s going to be someone different, a lot of teams can’t say that. Tonight it was Ritz’s turn.”

Braves coach Karla Rieckers applauded her freshman,

Klinge, for stepping up in the waning minutes.

“I put Madison Klinge in

there and I thought she played some quality minutes for us,” Rieckers said. “I put her in a tough situation and I thought she played well.”

At the end of the night, the Braves finished with 13 turnovers.

“We have been a team that’s been up and down,” Rieckers said. “We’re missing our point guard right now and that’s why I think we have so many turnovers. Once we get some people back I think it will just make us better.”

The Braves’ Reynolds led

her squad with 10 points and

12 rebounds.

“We needed her to step up, she’s been a little quiet. That’s one of the benefits of our team. We have so many weapons that so many people can contribute.”