The 2008 District 3-AA Tournament Champion Seymour Lady Eagles made easy work of the Anderson County Lady Mavericks—No. 4 finishers in District 4-AA—Friday night in the first-round of the Region 2-AA Tournament.
The host Lady Eagles jumped out to an early lead and withstood a couple of Lady Mavericks’ rallies to prevail 56-33 in the contest played at Seymour High School.
The first-round win earned the Lady Eagles a berth in the region semifinals played Monday at Anderson County High School. Seymour’s postseason run came to an end when the Lady Eagles were defeated 71-41 by the Austin-East Lady Roadrunners in the region semis, two wins away from a spot in the state tournament.
Against the Lady Mavs Friday night, the Lady Eagles looked to pick up right where they left off when they defeated Gibbs last week for their second District 3-AA Tournament Championship in program history.
After taking an 11-1 lead following a Kendra Brown three-pointer with 3:05 left in the first period, Anderson County actually embarked on an 11-0 run of its own to take its first, and only, lead at 12-11 with 6:45 left in the first half.
That would be the highlight of the night for the visitors as SHS regained control on a Casie Cowan baseline trey that sparked a 10-0 Lady Eagles’ run which ended with a Shaelyn Brown layup off a Tiffany Miles assist with 4:35 left in the half and Seymour suddenly on top, 21-12.
The Lady Mavericks answered with back-to-back buckets but the Lady Eagles closed out the first half with a bang as Cowan ripped a trey from the-top-of-the-key and Tara Heyboer knocked down a longball in the closing seconds of the half to make Seymour’s halftime advantage 26-16.
Seymour started the third on an 8-2 run and, after back-to-back AC buckets, closed out the quarter with another flurry to stake a 41-28 lead going into the final stanza.
The Lady Eagles kept the pressure turned up, pulling out to a 51-31 cushion before emptying the bench and playing reserves over the game’s final minutes.
Eight different Seymour players registered in the scoring column, including four different players with nine points or more. The Lady Eagles’ balanced offensive effort was led by Cowan’s 12 points, Kendra Brown’s 11 points, Shaelyn Brown’s 10 points and Tara Heyboer’s nine points. Ashleigh Elliott fired in seven points for SHS, Hannah Moore scored three points, and Sarah Black and Monica Rogers contributed two points each.
Friday’s region tournament win gave Seymour a 20-7 record going into the region semifinals.