The offense has started to click for the Seymour girls basketball team.
Seymour set a season high in points Tuesday night at the Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium, defeating Batesville 68-45.
Makenna Fee ignited the Owls’ offense in the opening quarter, scoring 12 of the team’s 20 points.
The Bulldogs (2-2) jumped to an 11-4 lead behind two 3-pointers from Ellie Waechler by the four-minute mark.
The Owls responded with a 14-0 run, with Maddie Roark, Ashton Chase and Fee all converting three-point plays. Fee also hit 3-pointer in the stretch and scored on a layup.
At the end of eight minutes, the Owls led 20-14.
Seymour didn’t pump the brakes before the halftime whistle.
The Owls scored six straight, led by a pair of baskets by Grace Meyer, to lead 28-17 with 5:29 on the clock.
Back-to-back 3-pointers from Meyer and Chase extended the Owls’ advantage to 36-20 at 2:47.
Fee then scored five straight points to put Seymour up 41-23 with a minute left in the half.
The Bulldogs’ Gabi Garcia hit a 3 before the buzzer, but the Bulldogs trailed 41-26 at intermission.
Batesville made six of 12 3-point shot tries in the first half, while the Owls shot 59 percent from the entire field (29 attempts).
“We were patient, and the ball reversed sides of the floor multiple times on a lot of those possessions,” Owls coach Jason Longmeier said. “I really thought, in the first three games, we weren’t giving defenses the opportunities to make mistakes. When you do that and don’t make your opponents play defense, it’s easy to keep the score low.
“I thought today we were much tougher to guard and our cuts were much more sharp. I thought we got to the basket a lot more and understood the importance of inside-out basketball.”
Fee had 21 points at the break to lead all scorers.
In the third quarter, the Owls showed off their defensive capabilities by limiting the Bulldogs to just three points on three field goals.
The Owls outscored the Bulldogs 11-2 by the 3:45-mark, led by a 3-pointer from Megan Ritz and four points by Fee.
Meyer added another trey as the Owls led 59-33 at the end of 24 minutes.
The Bulldogs opened the fourth quarter on a 6-0 run before a basket by Chase brought the score to 61-39 with 6:21 left.
Meyer and Chase got baskets to go with 1:30 left before the Owls ran out the clock.
Seymour finished the game by shooting 59 percent from the field.
Fee topped the Owls with 27 points and Meyer and Chase each scored 12. Meyer, a freshman, made her debut after missing the first three games of the season due to injury.
“It’s huge when you add someone to the mix that you counted on having,” Longmeier said. “(Meyer) came in and rebounded the ball well. I thought she did a good job of shooting when she found open shots. It’s good to have her back.”
Waechter topped the Bulldogs with 19 points.
The Owls dominated the boards, outrebounding the Bulldogs 32-15.
Seymour will have an extended break from action, as they’re off until Nov. 24 when they go to Rushville.
Longmeier said he looks forward to the numerous practices ahead.
“We’ve had two practices all year where we’ve been at full strength,” he said. “The first two weeks we didn’t have Ashton because she was still competing in cross-country. Then when we got Ashton back we lost Grace to injury. It’s hard to get into any kind of flow when you’re not able to practice with the same continuity.
“Now we have it in place and we’re figuring out what we do well and what we don’t. We’re finding out what’s best for this team to complete at a high level.”