Defensive pressure leads to Owls blowout

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SCOTTSBURG

All five starters Seymour scored at least one basket during the first six minutes of Saturday night’s girls basketball game at Scottsburg.

That set the tone for things to come, as the Owls opened an 18-11 lead at the end of the first quarter and rolled to a 62-32 win in the Charles Meyer Gymnasium.

“Early on we made them defend the inside, and a good thing about our group — and we’ve talked about it all year, that it’s hard to focus on one or two of our kids,” Owls coach Jason Longmeier said. “When you can stretch the floor with the shooters that we have, and you have the inside play that we have, and we can get it all going at the same time, we’re going to be one heck of an outfit.”

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Maci Lubker hit a 3-pointer on Seymour’s first possession to get the offense started.

Two goals by Mikayla Fee and a basket by Emilee Pollmann helped the Owls extend their lead to 13-5 at 3:03, and it was 18-11 at the end of the period. Fee had four rebounds to go with her four points in the first period.

Although the Owls cooled off to 3-for-13 shooting in the second period, they continued to extend their lead as a layup by Lauren James increased the difference to 23-11.

Taylor Means hit a 3-pointer at the 1:40-mark for Scottsburg’s only points of the period, but Lindsey Hume matched that three at the end of the period to put the Owls on top 27-14 at the half.

Scottsburg shot 1-for-9 in the period.

“We were really focusing on (Paige Barrett), and Pollmann had Barrett all night,” Longmeier said. “Pollmann did just a tremendous job on her. Maci was on (Emma) Waskom, their point guard, and really kept Waskom from getting comfortable and getting into their offense. We lost Means a couple of times on the baseline for some open shots, but in the course of a game that’s going to happen.

The Owls continued to dominate the first five minutes of the third period by going on a 10-0 run, and a basket by Lubker made it a 37-14 game before the Warriors scored six points in the final 2:07 to trail 40-20 going into the final period.

“Our goal going in, and the number we put on the board was 24,” Longmeier said. “We said if we hold Waskom, Barrett and Means to 24 or less points we have a chance to embarrass them, and that’s kind of what happened tonight. They had exactly 24. We knew they just didn’t have enough scoring options to play with us.”

Ritz topped the Owls in points with 15, Lubker scored 12 and Griffin 10.

Griffin had nine rebounds to help the Owls to a 30-23 advantage in that department.

Means topped Scottsburg (10-10) with 13 points.

Longmeier said the Owls running game was especially good in the third period.

“When they got down a little bit, and you could kind of see the wear on their faces, and our girls really took advantage of that, and that’s what we talked about,” he said.

Eight different Owls scored and Longmeier said, “That’s what we have to have because we just can’t continue to ride our horses with the stretch we have coming up. We play three games (this week). Starting (last Saturday) we play four games in eight days so our girls have to be ready to go.”

The Owls (15-4) are riding a four-game winning streak. They will play host to Salem on Tuesday, New Albany on Thursday and Austin on Saturday.

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