For The Tribune

COLUMBUS

Seymour had the lead midway through the third quarter Tuesday night at Columbus North, but the final four minutes of the period haunted the Owls.

The Bull Dogs finished the third period on a 14-0 run to turn a one-point deficit into a 13-point lead. Seymour made a charge down the stretch, but North held on for a 61-53 victory.

“Truthfully, I feel like we beat ourselves tonight,” Seymour coach Tyler Phillips said. “We gave up 12 offensive rebounds, and we had (12) turnovers. Against a team of that caliber, you can’t do that, and that’s what happened that third quarter. We quit rotating on the back side, and gave up layups, and when we got them to miss a shot, we couldn’t rebound it. We know they’re both just effort plays. They’re just things that our kids decided we weren’t going to do tonight.”

The Owls (11-10) led 11-10 after one quarter, thanks to three 3-pointers from Ty McCory. McCory hit another 3-pointer in the second quarter, which ended with the Bull Dogs (13-9) leading 26-23.

The lead changed hands 11 times in the first half, and neither team led by more than three points.

Seymour took its last lead at 31-30 on a basket by Alan Perry with 4:29 left in the third quarter. But then North ran off the last 14 points of the period to take a 44-31 lead.

“We picked up the defensive intensity, and we didn’t let No. 11 (McCory) knock down any more 3s,” North coach Paul Ferguson said. “We knew he was a good shooter coming in, and he got some off on us, but we locked him down the second half and picked up our defensive intensity.”

Perry finished with 15 points and seven assists, and McCory added 14 points to lead the Owls. Tiller Cummings had 10 points and led Seymour with seven rebounds.

The Bull Dogs finished with a 32-25 rebounding advantage.

“I thought we executed well offensively,” Phillips said. “We haven’t seen zone like that, that high 1-2-2 very often. I thought we guarded them well. We just couldn’t rebound.”