Aggressive Owls win opener

Seymour boys basketball coach Scott Miller liked what he saw as he glanced up at the scoreboard heading into the locker room at halftime of Saturday night’s game against Martinsville in the Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium.

The scoreboard read Seymour 42, Martinsville 26.

Miller also liked what he saw when he walked the same path after the game when the scoreboard read Seymour 70, Martinsville 50.

“We put 70 up on the board,” Miller said. “We had some rough edges, particularly late in the third quarter and early in the fourth quarter. We got a little sloppy, but one of the things we’ve talked about is playing through your mistakes and going and getting the ball back.

“Our scoring was balanced, our shooting was excellent tonight, and we’ve got some good shooters. We’ve also got kids that can get to the rim, and that is something Jacob (Carmichael) did early and really made a difference in this game.”

Martinsville was leading 10-6 after five minutes when Seymour’s Matt Trimnell converted a 3-point play and Zach Toppe followed with a 3-point shot from the corner to give Seymour its first lead at 12-10 with 2:35 on the clock.
The Owls became more aggressive on offense as they began taking the ball to the basket and drawing fouls.

Carmichael, Nolan Fife and Trimnell scored Seymour’s next five points from the free-throw line. Fife closed the quarter with a 10-foot jumper for a 19-10 lead.

Trimnell, who had nine points in the first period, hit a 3-pointer two minutes into the second period for a 27-10 lead. Shawn Downey finally ended Martinsville’s scoreless string with a free throw with 5:36 left in the half. Martinsville went seven minutes without scoring.

Seymour continued to take the ball to the basket the remainder of the half as Fife scored a layup and Carmichael added two layups to help the Owls take the 16-point lead at the half.

“Jacob is quick, I think Matt can get through a space about an inch and a half wide and Nolan is a super cutter,” Miller said. “I thought Zach’s game, with the exception of a couple turnovers, was good. There again you’re talking about a team full of guards and by nature they’re going to have the ball in their hands quite a bit, so that is something we’re going to work on. People are going to trap kids that are smaller than them, and we’ve just got to keep trying to get to the rim.”

Trimnell opened the second-half scoring with his second 3-pointer of the night for a 45-26 lead. Toppe also had a pair of 3-pointers in the period when the Owls outscored the Artesians 14-12 to take a 56-38 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Artesians cut Seymour’s lead to 58-45 with three minutes gone in the fourth quarter before Trimnell added another 3-pointer to put the Owls up 61-45 with 4:10 remaining.

Trimnell captured game-scoring honors with 24 points, Toppe and Carmichael scored 14 each and Fife tallied 13.
The Owls made 22 of 39 shots from the floor for 56 percent, which left Miller pleased.

“I don’t think there were too many times tonight that we could really complain about our shot selection,” he said.
Martinsville scored the first four points of the game, and that was the only time in the first half the visitors scored back-to-back baskets. Martinsville was 20-for-47 from the floor.

“Some of their points came from us when we had those turnovers,” Miller said. “I thought overall, with those kids in spots they were in and them giving us a couple different defensive looks, I thought our kids did a great job.”
The Artesians made six 3-point shots.

“You can’t really get frustrated if somebody hits a 3 on you against a zone because all they have to do is back up,” Miller said. “They hit shots that got them back in the game, but what you want to see early is how kids display their character in tough situations, and we didn’t have one or two kids that carried us through. We had a team that went out there and collectively got the job done. This has been a really enjoyable group to coach. It’s nice to be 1-0 because it’s been a long time.”

Seymour will be home to Brownstown Central on Friday night.

Box score

At Seymour
Martinsville 10 16 12 12—50
Seymour 19 23 14 14—70

Seymour (1-0): Nolan Fife 5-13 2-2 13, Zach Toppe 4-7 2-3 14, Jacob Carmichael 4-4 6-8 14, Matt Trimnell 8-12 5-5 24, Connor Kirtley 0-1 3-4 3, Jase Hunnicutt 1-1 0-0 2, Josh Joray 0-1 0-0 0, Mitch Hunnicutt 0-0 0-0 0, Grant Hubbard 0-0 0-0 0, Evan Beach 0-0 0-0 0, totals 22-39 18-22 70

Martinsville (0-2): Derek Krebs 3-8 0-0 7, Seth Dow 2-5 0-0 5, Jason Ray 2-6 0-0 4, Willie Spina 3-7 0-0 7, Shawn Downey 2-5 3-6 7, Ryan Schneck 2-2 0-1 4, Hayden Northern 1-1 0-0 2, Logan Barker 1-2 0-0 3, Isaac Johnson 1-1 0-0 3, Hagan Carter 0-2 1-2 1, Greg Spina 3-8 0-0 7, Michael Spina 0-0 0-0 0, totals 20-47 4-9 50

3-point goals: Seymour (Toppe 4, Trimnell 3, Fife), Martinsville (Krebs, Downey, W. Spina, Barker, Johnson, G. Spina)

Rebounds: Seymour 24 (Trimnell 7, Fife 6), Martinsville 21 (Downey 5, G. Spina 5).

Turnovers: Seymour 14, Martinsville 14

Fouls: Seymour 11, Martinsville 22 (fouled out: Krebs)

Junior varsity
Martinsville 18 20 13 13—64
Seymour 8 8 10 9—35

Seymour (0-1): Brian Clark 9, Hubbard 6, Beach 5, Luke Tormoehlen 5, Canyon Dailey 4, Tanner Stuckwisch 2, Charlie Brown 2, Michael Miller 2