Eagles try to rid self-destrive streak

Thursday night’s setback at Pigeon Forge was just about as disappointing as it gets for the 5-2 Seymour Eagles. Seymour led the undefeated Tigers 46-45 with 1:15 to play and were in the process of killing the game clock when John Holland, a junior wing who has been one of the Eagles’ most reliable contributors of the early season stretch, made an unforced error when he was whistled for a double-dribble. The opportunistic Tigers took advantage by nailing a go-ahead trey on the other end to go up 48-46 with less than a minute left. Things unraveled from there for head coach Randy Moore’s Eagles as Seymour was forced to put Pigeon Forge players at the charity stripe in an effort to stop the clock and get back down court in a hurry in a desperation, catch-up mode. It didn’t work, as the homestanding Tigers held on down the stretch to pick up the win. “I told the boys, ‘I can’t coach when we make unforced errors at the end when we’re up by one point,’ a disappointed Moore said. “I think when we’re up by one with a minute left we have to be able to dictate the outcome of the game. Unforced turnovers won’t allow you to do that.” Moore does see a silver lining to his team’s recent self-destructive streak. “Our boys are playing hard, we’re just not playing smart,” said Moore. “Zach Pace and Derrick Lee (The Eagles two most productive offensive weapons through the first few games) are getting into foul trouble too early and too often, and we’re making too many unforced mistakes to get anything positive done at this point. “We’ll keep working at fixing those mistakes this week.”