By Justin Sokeland
(SEYMOUR) – From point-blank range, Bedford North Lawrence shot blanks. Couldn’t make anything, and it was frustrating, perplexing. But from 15 feet, the Stars were deadly. Thank goodness they got there.
BNL withstood one of those road nights that scare a coach and cause hair loss, when shots don’t fall and the kids in home white are white knights with swords drawn, ready to inflict damage. In the end, Seymour finally surrendered after a valiant battle.
Chloe McKnight scored a career-high 25 points and freshman Karsyn Norman was clutch in the fourth quarter as BNL escaped Seymour’s bomb barrage with a 59-49 win on Thursday night. BNL (7-3, 3-1 in the Hoosier Hills Conference) won its third straight league road game and did so with nothing close to its best performance.
Seymour, despite the self-destruction of 27 turnovers, despite BNL’s 25-point edge at the foul line, had the Stars in squirm mode for the first 24 minutes. But BNL opened the final period with 12 consecutive points and salvaged a W from a much worse fate.
The Owls overcame the mistakes with 11 3-pointers. They could have had a comfortable halftime lead if not for McKnight’s one-girl offensive surge, yet could have been blown out of Scott Gymnasium with all the errors. Go figure that out.
BNL, incredibly, won while hitting 11 of 41 shots through the first three quarters. The Stars missed layups at a inexplicable rate.
“That’s a tough formula on the road,” BNL coach Jeff Allen said, with that wry smile of someone who knows what they got away with. “I give my kids credit because I don’t think they panicked. They showed some maturity. We stayed in the fight.
“Conference games on the road, you just have to figure out how to get it done. Sometimes it’s going to be pretty, sometimes it’s not. You still want to come out on top. As long as we’re on top, I’m OK.”
BNL was rarely on top, trailing by as many as 6 in the first half and by 42-39 after the third. That’s when the Owls (3-6) finally wore down as Haley Deckard rebounded her own miss for a bucket, Irye Gomez snaked loose for a transition layup, and the stormin’ rookie Norman twice drove for tough buckets in the lane. With that surge, BNL was up 51-42 with 3:20 left, and the Owls were out of energy.
“That’s a game, where a team is making shots, on the road, you could fold,” Allen said. “My kids didn’t do that.”
McKnight deserves credit for keeping BNL within range as she scored 10 second-quarter points and hit the last of her four 3-pointers while scoring BNL’s last seven points of the third.
“Chloe is growing in leaps and bounds,” Allen said.
“I thought I needed to step up,” McKnight said. “I needed to score for us to win. We all got frustrated and rushed into shots, but we got it under control.”
Grace Schrader had 14 points and Grace Meyer added 13 (plus a game-high 9 rebounds). Schrader hit 4 3-pointers, most from the same spot at the top of the key, and Aidan Hiester drilled three from long range. Seymour was 11 of 17 from distance.
But Seymour did not shoot a free throw, while BNL was 25 of 32 overall (18 of 20 in the second half). “I hope we make some layups at that rate,” Allen said.
“Two stats really jumped out and it’s a minor miracle we were within 10,” Seymour coach Jason Longmeier said, “which is the 25-point discrepancy at the line and the 27 turnovers. You look at those two things and it’s probably a 40-point loss.
“McKnight kept them in it. We could have gone to the locker room with a 10-point lead. In the second half, Norman was really hard for us to guard.”
BNL will now make a long, difficult road trip to Cincinnati to face national power and defending Ohio state champion Mount Notre Dame on Saturday afternoon.
BEDFORD NL STARS (59)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
22 Irye Gomez, f 0-2 2-8 5-8 4 1 9
32 Madison Webb, c 0-0 1-9 2-2 2 2 4
11 Chloe McKnight, g 4-6 7-14 7-8 4 0 25
24 Gracie Crulo-Rood, g 0-1 1-5 0-0 2 3 2
21 Karsyn Norman, g 0-0 3-4 7-8 0 2 13
23 Jenna Louden 0-0 0-1 4-6 3 0 4
50 Peyton Sweet 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
40 Haley Deckard 0-1 1-5 0-0 3 0 2
12 Makena Moore 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 4-10 15-46 25-32 23 8 59
SEYMOUR OWLS (49)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
22 Grace Meyer, f 1-3 6-10 0-0 9 2 13
20 Grace Schrader, f 4-7 5-12 0-0 4 3 14
10 Aidan Hiester, g 3-3 3-5 0-0 3 4 9
3 Alyssa Perry, g 2-3 2-5 0-0 5 3 6
1 Jamya Miller, g 1-1 3-4 0-0 1 3 7
13 Kendrick Sterling 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 1 0
23 Brooke Trinkle 0-0 0-0 0-0 2 1 0
24 Cali Cummings 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
2 Eliza Cash 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Totals 11-17 19-36 0-0 27 18 49
Bedford NL 12 14 13 20 – 59
Seymour 15 12 15 7 – 49
Turnovers – BNL 11, Seymour 27
Field goal percentage – BNL 15-46 (.326); Seymour 19-36 (.528)
Free throw percentage – BNL 25-32 (.781); Seymour 0-0 (.000)
