cold fourth quarter dooms eagles

After clawing back to take a 39-38 lead going into the fourth quarter in a clash of fierce county rivals at Seymour High School Tuesday evening, the Seymour Eagles saw the bottom fall out on their bid for a comeback win over the visiting Sevier County Smoky Bears when SCHS held Seymour to just five fourth-quarter points and pulled away for a 62-44 win.

After falling behind 15-6 after the first eight minutes, the Eagles tightened up their defense and put the heat on the Smoky Bears scorers, allowing no open shots during the second period and cutting Sevier County’s lead to 26-24 at the halftime break.

The Eagles picked up where they left off when the third period started, turning it into more of a halfcourt affair and fighting back to take the one point lead at the end of the third.

While the Eagles were ice cold during the game’s final eight minutes, the Smoky Bears were on fire, producing 24 fourth-quarter points to win going away by a final count of 62-44.

Zach Pace, who finished with 14 points for the Eagles, was the only Seymour player to reach double figures in the game. For the Eagles, Chad Headrick added eight points, Carlton Logue finished with seven points, Andy Whisler had six points, Greg Korlin chipped in three, and Taylor Sawyer, Skylar Brown and Jeffrey Harmon each contributed two points.

Sevier County was led by Shawn Hodge’s 17 points and Jesse Hurst’s 14 points.

Hurst connected on two of the Smoky Bears five 3-pointers in the game while the Eagles’ only treys came from Headrick and Korlin, who finished with one each.

The Eagles will get a chance for payback when the same two teams meet against on February 11 at Burchfield Arena on the SCHS campus in the final regular season game of the year.