Seymour Loses to South Doyle in OT

By: Lee Ramsey
lee@seymourherald.com
What a game for a basketball fan. It had everything you could ask for as far as excitement. The only thing missing was made free throws. They were about as scarce as sharks in Douglas Lake as there were 37 missed free throws between both teams with the Eagles missing 23. If that’s not a record it’s got to be close.
Seymour lost to South Doyle in overtime by a score of 52-51 making the Eagles record 10-8 and 2-6 in the IMAC.
The mark of a good coach is one who doesn’t always measure success in terms of wins and losses only.
Seymour Coach Brian Jessie falls into that category.
“I was proud of the kids. We executed well and played well, we didn’t turn the ball over much and we had excellent communication,” he said. “We were getting pretty much what we wanted offensively. I can’t complain – we’ve just got to hit our free throws; 13 out of 36 was ridiculous from the free throw line.”
Seymour would have won the game easily if they had shot anything near a decent percentage from the free throw line.
With 2 seconds to go in regulation the score was tied at 45-45. The Eagles had a chance to win but missed a pair of free throws to send the game to OT.
In the overtime, the Cherokees scored first against the Seymour 2-3 zone defense (switching from man to man). That made the score 47-45.
Max Harrell then scored on a jumper for the Eagles to tie the game.
After Seymour made a free throw, South Doyle hit a jumper to go up 49-48 with 55 seconds to go.
The Cherokees then hit two free throws to increase their lead to three, 51-48 with 30 seconds to go.
With 3 seconds left South Doyle hit another free throw to take a 4 point lead and make the game a two possession game (unless fouled on a made 3 pointer).
With 3 seconds to go, Seymour’s Peyton Lee hit a 3 pointer to cut the lead to one but it was too little too late for the Eagles as South Doyle won the ‘Battle of Chapman Highway’ this time.
The lead went back and forth the entire game as the score stood 9-8 after the first quarter.
At the end of the half, the lead switched to South Doyle leading 22-21.
The Eagles took the lead back by the end of the 3rd quarter leading 39-33 as senior Skylar Brown took over scoring 9 points in the 3rd quarter after scoring 8 the first half. He finished the game as high scorer with 22. Brown had an outstanding game looking unstoppable at times. His only negative was that he struggled at the free throw line.
It was obvious Seymour’s game plan was to go inside to him. Brown was followed in scoring by senior guard Max Harrell with 9, senior Alex Lambert 7, junior Logan Jenkins 5, sophomore D.J. Griffin 4, Peyton Lee 3 and Bobbo Chesser 1.
Next up for the Seymour Eagles is a tough IMAC district game at home against Sevier County.