The old saying that basketball is a game of runs was evident at the Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium on Friday night.
Despite a 15-point fourth quarter from Toriek Miller, the Seymour boys basketball team couldn’t make a comeback against visiting Bedford North Lawrence.
The Owls started the fourth quarter on a 9-0 run behind nine points from Miller, including two 3-pointers, to cut the deficit to 50-45 with 6:35 remaining in the game.
However, the Stars hit enough of their free throws down the stretch to take the 68-58 victory.
“At the end of the day, we just didn’t get stops,” Owls coach Kyle Clough said. “I was really disappointed, for the first time this year, in our defensive effort.
“I just didn’t feel like we checked anybody. I felt like they got layup after layup. We’ve been able to hang our hat on not giving those plays up, but tonight we just didn’t do it, and I give (the Stars) a lot of credit for that.”
In the first quarter, the Stars opened the game on an 11-2 run off a handful of Owls turnovers.
Owls forward Isaiah Thomas started the game hot from the floor scoring six points, but the Stars led 22-8 after eight minutes of play.
The Owls committed seven turnovers in the first half and gave a majority of their points up in the paint.
At the start of the second quarter, the Owls went on a 7-0 run behind a 3-pointer from Miller, a field goal by Ryan Wieneke and two free throws from Alan Perry.
Freshman Tiller Cummings played well off the bench for the Owls before the half, scoring five-straight points to narrow the margin 20-28 at the 3:08 mark.
The Stars led 37-22 at halftime.
Following halftime, the Owls came out aggressively as they have done many times this season.
With 1:10 left in the third quarter, the Stars had racked-up eight fouls.
“We’ve done a nice job at drawing fouls all year,” Clough said. “Unfortunately we missed some free throws that we usually make during that stretch. It’s just not a complete effort by our guys and we told our guys that in the locker room. If we don’t play our best, we’re not gonna win. Not in this league, not in this part of the state.”
Trailing 49-36 with eight minutes left in the game, the Owls went on their run.
The closest the Owls got to the Stars was five points.
Miller led the Owls with 26 points and six rebounds, and Thomas finished with 14 points and four boards before fouling out in the final quarter.
“Toriek has that ability, he can get it going,” Clough said. “I didn’t think he made very good decisions in the beginning of the game, but he gave us a chance there in the fourth quarter.”
The Owls (5-9) will head to South Ripley on Tuesday.