A 64-57 District 3-AA Tournament first-round loss to the Carter Hornets Friday night at tournament-host Gibbs High School brought an unceremonious end to what has been a strange and disappointing season for the Seymour Eagles (4-20 overall).
The Hornets, who lost to eventual tourney champ Fulton in the second round but stunned Alcoa in the consolation game to finish a surprising third in the tourney, got some payback against the Eagles after losing to Seymour in the tournament’s opening round the last four years.
The first-round district tournament loss matches Seymour’s earliest exit this decade. In SHS head coach Randy Moore’s 12 years as head coach of the Eagles, his team has earned berths in the region tournament in 10 of those seasons.
“It was a very strange year,” said Moore. “We had leads in the fourth quarter in at least 10 games that we ended up losing. For some reason we just couldn’t put teams away when we had the lead this year.
“If we’re able to win half of those 10 games we’d been around .500 on the year,” Moore hypothesized, “which is more along the lines of what I thought this team was capable of doing when the season started.”
The Eagles will say goodbye to four seniors who played major roles on the team this year, including versatile slasher Chad Headrick, scrappy guard Taylor Sawyer, gritty floor-leader Jeffrey Harmon and 1,000-point career scorer and likely All-District forward Zac Pace.
The Fulton Falcons edged Austin-East 65-57 Tuesday night to claim the District 3-AA Tournament Championship.