NORTH VERNON
A turbulent season came to a crashing conclusion for the Seymour High School girls basketball team.
The Owls trailed for all but four minutes in a 59-26 thrashing by Class 4A No. 15 Bedford North Lawrence in the Sectional 15 quarterfinals at Jennings County High School Tuesday.
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The loss dropped the Owls to 8-17, marking the program’s lowest win total for a season since its 2003-2004 campaign when the varsity finished 6-15.
“It was very similar to the things that have happened to us all season,” Owls coach Jason Longmeier said. “We play well and then when the ball doesn’t go through the hoop it gets tough. It just kept getting tougher and tougher, and I thought our competitive level started to go down as the game got away from us.”
SHS led 4-2 on a pair of buckets by junior Grace Meyer before the Stars’ offense caught got rolling behind its work on the boards.
In the final 4:02 of the opening stanza, the Stars (17-5) outscored the Owls 12-1 to take a 14-5 advantage.
The Stars had 12 rebounds to the Owls’ four in the first eight minutes.
A 7-2 run by the Owls, on four points by Meyer and three by sophomore Grace Schrader, cut the SHS deficit to 22-12 with 3:02 left in the half, but the Stars wouldn’t give up another score before the buzzer as they led 26-12 at the break.
The Stars led the Owls 23-13 in rebounding at intermission while winning the turnover battle 7-2.
BNL kept the pressure on to start the second half by putting together a 12-3 run in five minutes to go up 39-15.
Going into the final quarter the Stars felt comfortable, up 43-17, as the Owls were only able to put up five points in the third.
The reigning Hoosier Hills Conference co-champions were able to coast the rest of the way, as BNL won its 10th contest over its last 11 games by downing the Owls.
The Owls shot 9-for-37 in the game, including 1-for-16 from 3-point, while the Stars went 22-for-49.
BNL dominated the boards 37-23 and won the turnover margin 20-11.
Junior Irye Gomez and senior Madison Webb each tallied 15 points to lead the Stars while Meyer and Schrader both scored eight for the Owls. Freshman Brooke Trinkle scored six points and junior Alyssa Perry and senior Aidan Hiester each had two points to round out the Owls’ scoring.
Longmeier said the Stars will be a tough out in the postseason.
“I would say that they are back to being one of the top-10 teams in Indiana,” he said. “Their kids have great skillsets. Our kids have to pay attention to that. Moving forward, our kids need to be willing to put in the extra time that it takes to be successful. They are all just solid, it’s what they do.”
Hiester is the only senior to graduate from the Owls’ roster.
In his eight years of leading the program, the Owls have now finished under .500 twice with Longmeier as head coach.
“Coming in we knew it was going to be a season of ups and downs,” Longmeier said. “Unfortunate we had more downs than ups. I think we have some things we can build on here.”
BNL will play New Albany (7-14) on Friday in the semis while Jeffersonville (14-10) faces the host Panthers (9-14) in the late game. Jeff defeated Floyd Central (5-18) 49-38 Tuesday.
The championship game will be played at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.