For The Tribune
The Seymour boys basketball team put on a good show for the Seymour High School Athletic Hall of Fame inductees Saturday night in the Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium.
After a sluggish first half, resulting in a 25-19 lead, the Owls scored the first 18 points of the third period, increased their lead to 47-22 at the end of the quarter and defeated Jennings County 65-37 in a Hoosier Hills Conference game.
“It was nice to honor the Hall of Fame inductees with a win,” Owls coach Tyler Phillips said. “I told the guys they have earned the right to come back here and watch you play hard, and play the right way, and get a win.
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“The kids had that in mind and I think they took that to heart and I hope we gave them something fun to watch.”
Phillips said the game was up there with the best performances this season for Seymour.
“You hold a team to 19 in a half you’re going to put yourself in position to be successful,” he said.
Alan Perry had a hot hand from the start as he scored Seymour’s first eight points and sparked the Owls to a 12-11 lead at the end of the first period.
Tiller Cummings scored five points and had four rebounds, and Ty McCory nailed a 3-pointer in the second quarter to help the Owls (3-3, 1-2 HHC) to a 25-19 lead at the half.
McCory opened the second-half scoring with his second 3-pointer of the night, and later converted a 3-point play, Cummings stayed hot inside with three baskets and a free throw, Perry added two baskets, and Zach Moore completed the 18-point run with a free throw to put the Owls on top 43-19 with 2:59 left in the third period.
Aaron Martin finally scored for the Panthers on a lay-up with 2:05 left in the period before Cummings and Perry added baskets late to put the Owls on top 47-22 heading into the final period.
“We came out in the third quarter with the same mentality,” Phillips said. “They came out in the first half and threw a loop at us. They had a couple kids banged up and they brought a freshman up that we hadn’t seen and we adjusted from that.
“The kids locked in. They decided they wanted to attract stops, and they wanted to see how many stops in a row they could get. They had a mentality they weren’t going to give anything up, they weren’t going to bend and they didn’t.”
Jennings (1-4, 0-2 HHC) shot 1-for-12 in the third period and 14-for-48 for the game, while the Owls shot 22-for-48.
“The kids did a really nice job,” Phillips said. “We had too many turnovers (11) but everything else we wanted to do tonight we accomplished.”
Cummings scored a career-high 23 points to go along with 12 rebounds
“Tiller had a great night,” Phillips said. “We told Tiller when he’s willing to play that way we’re a different basketball team. We’re a lot better basketball team when he plays with that kind of assertiveness. That’s the kind of Tiller I look to see going forward.”
Perry finished with 19 points and McCory added 10. Martin was high scorer for the Panthers with eight points.
The Owls doubled up the Panthers on the board, 36-18 in rebounds,
“Any night that we take care of the basketball, we lock in defensively and we rebound we’re going to have a chance to be successful no matter who we play,” Phillips siad. “You look at our record this year, the nights we’ve done those things we’ve put ourselves in position to win. The nights we haven’t we’ve struggled.
“That’s our thing, we’ve got to take care of the ball and we’ve got to rebound and we did both of those pretty well tonight.”
This marks the second time this season the Owls have held a team to under 40 points, and that is a number that Phillips likes.
“(Defense) is all the kids,” Phillips said. “We taught them what to do, but defense is mentality. They’ve talked since the pre-season that they want to be a special defensive team. They look for ways to get better defensively, and they try to hold each-other accountable. They want to hold people in the 40s so I’m sure they’re pleased with the 37-point effort.”
The Owls will host Whiteland Tuesday night.