Seymour (11-8) used a balanced attack of outside gunnery and Chris Slay drives to comeback from another double-digit deficit and upset the taller visiting county foe Pigeon Forge 57-49 Monday night. Pigeon Forge (13-6) was fast out of the blocks using their height advantage and quick passes to score the game’s first six points and force Coach Randy Moore to call time just a 75 seconds into the game.
SHS came out and set up Thomas Floyd to drain a three as they tried to get the long-range attack going. The Tigers continued to dominate the opening minutes even as Seymour began to clamp down on the inside defensively. SHS got two more threes, one from Matt Harrell and another from Blake Carr but trailed 15-9. The Tigers opened up their own sharp shooter Allen DeWyse in the final minute of the first period. DeWyse came around a screen at the top of the key to nail one trey then waited with the ball as the clock wound down and tickled the twine from five feet behind the line at the buzzer to give Pigeon Forge a 21-9 cushion. DeWyse had half of his game high 22 points in the opening quarter, single handedly outscoring the Eagles.
SHS has yet to give up on game this season and patiently chipped away at the Pigeon Forge lead in the second. The teams were checking each other out on defense and the first field goal didn’t fall until just over the three-minute mark. SHS was hot from the foul line, draining 7-of-8 in the quarter. Slay’s entrance into the game gave SHS some interior offense as he drove and drew fouls of the Tiger post players. He missed just one of his six tries in the quarter and that miss fell into the hands of teammate Carr who went back up to score and make it a three point possession that cut the lead to 22-14.
DeWyse and Derrick Norris hit back-to-back three’s to make it 28-16 but it was the only offensive punch the Tigers had in the quarter. Floyd hit a bomb for SHS and Slay got four of his sixteen points in the final minute as the Tigers took a slimmer 28-23 lead to the half.
Seymour continued to close in the third as the Tiger’s inside game began to disappear against the smaller Eagles. Chris Andrews followed a Chris Ferguson miss with a tip-in to give Pigeon Forge a 34-28 lead with 4:21 left. Carr scored underneath on textbook execution of an inbounds play and Slay hit the short jumper to bring the Eagles within two. Carr then drilled a trey from the top of the key to give SHS its first lead of the game at 35-34 at the 2:05 mark. DeWyse got the bucket and a foul to put Pigeon Forge back in front, but Floyd hit one at the buzzer to send the teams to the final quarter 37 all.
After Slay hit again on a drive the teams spent a few moments playing who can hit from farther back. DeWyse connected from three-point land to put the Tigers up, followed by Josh Harmon answering with the same on the other end to put SHS back in front. DeWyse missed his response but hit the floor on the fall away to get the foul call for three chances at the line. He hit 2 out of the 3 to tie the score at 42.
Seymour got the better of the following free throw exchanges, hitting four to the Tigers one. Several missed threes ate away at the clock, before Carr drew an off the ball foul from Woodrick. Hitting both sides of the bonus foul shots gave SHS a 48-43 lead with 2:18 remaining. The Tigers could no closer than three points and were forced to foul with the Eagles holding a 50-47 lead. Floyd hit 3 of 4 down the stretch but the one he missed let Slay slip inside and tip it in for a 55-49 lead. The Tigers lost the ball to Slay on a steal and he found Chris Fry all by himself down court for a game ending lay-up.
“We just didn’t step up tonight,” said Coach Harper. “We didn’t exploit our height advantage. The defense did all right. Randy does a great job with the motion offense, but we lost two key rebounds on foul shots that cost us.”
“I’m so proud of these guys,” said Coach Moore. “We missed up our defenses well after the first and we did a good job boxing out in a 2-3 defense, which is something we haven’t been doing well.”

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