By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – Don’t turn your back. If a dribbler dares to face away from a ball-hawking Bedford North Lawrence defender, if quiet junior Madisyn Bailey is left unattended, a price will be paid. Seymour suffered the penalty for both sins.
Don’t look away. In the time a channel surfer flips through the viewing selections, the Stars broke the remote control, hitting buttons so fast it boggled the eyes. Anyone skipping through the final four minutes of the second quarter and the first four of the second half would be convinced they were watching an entirely different game.
With a devastating 26-0 run, No.4 BNL turned a seat squirmer into a runaway. Chloe Spreen scored 22 points and Madisyn Bailey netted a career-high 17 as the Stars (9-1) stormed to a 64-25 victory on Thursday night and made it to the halfway point of the Hoosier Hills Conference race at 3-0.
For the first 12 minutes, Seymour (7-2, 0-2) was causing concern. The Owls owned a 12-11 lead after the first quarter, and stood within 17-16 midway through the second. Someone helicoptering into BNL Fieldhouse at that point would have been surprised by Seymour’s dictation of the tempo.
And from that point, everyone was impressed by the BNL eruption. The Owls didn’t score for the next nine minutes, totaled as many points during the final 20 minutes as they did the first 12. Bailey ignited the offense, BNL’s bench contributed to the shut-down defense, and what was once a tight squeeze became a running-clock blowout.
So break down the two segments. The first 12 minutes, Brooke Trinkle scored 12 points, and the lackluster Stars needed a spark. From that point, Seymour’s turnovers (17 in the first half) fueled BNL’s engines. The Stars shifted from sputtering to turbocharged.
“The first 12 minutes, we played with more energy,” Seymour coach Jason Longmeier said. “Our defense kept them in check, and we kept Spreen and (Karsyn) Norman from getting to the basket. All of a sudden, Bailey started making shots, which spread things and make it tougher for us to keep them where we wanted to keep them.”
The next segment, pure BNL domination. Senior reserve Katie Baumgart, who had taken only one 3-pointer all season, drilled a trey from the key to start the avalanche. Bailey broke loose for back-to-back perimeter bombs, Spreen scored twice in the lane, and Norman popped a trey for a 33-16 lead at the half.
“Give Seymour credit, I thought they played really well,” BNL coach Jeff Allen said. “They’re a good team. I felt like we were out of position on the defensive side, giving them angles. Offensively, we weren’t sharing the ball like we needed, and we missed shots because of it. That kept us bogged down.
“When we get stops, and get out in transition, that makes us good. We talked about being more conservative, keeping people in front of us, getting stops, get out and go. It got the game loosened up.”
BNL continued the never-ending attack with Norman’s wing drive, Spreen’s three from the key, and Bailey’s coast-to-coast jaunt with a rebound for a three-point play. Seymour finally ended the run with Kendall Sterling’s 3-pointer with 2:59 left in the frame. BNL owned a 43-19 lead then, and the margin hit 35 (58-23) with 5:14 remaining in the final quarter.
Bailey was the key. She had 15 points in the middle quarters, and BNL needed that infusion.
“She played really well, and she’s capable of that,” Allen said. “You’d like to see that every night. I keep prodding her along. Little by little, she’s figuring it out. That just makes us more dangerous when we have a third option like that. We’ve been waiting on her to really step it up.”
Getting Bailey to score is not that hard. Getting her to talk about it is. The soft-talking junior guard was a shot whisperer.
“We were all struggling. I needed to step up,” Bailey said. “I just realized I needed to step up and score. I felt good about my shot. They played really well in the first quarter. In the second quarter, they started getting tired. I started going to the basket.“
Spreen was deadly and efficient, hitting 10 of 12 shots and grabbing a game-high 7 rebounds. Norman finished with 13 points.
Trinkle didn’t score again after her early firestorm and totaled 12 points. Seymour scoring leader Kendall Sterling was limited to 9. The Owls were held to their lowest point total since a 70-24 loss to New Albany during the 2001-02 campaign.
“It exposed our offensive weakness,” Longmeier said. “Way too much dribbling against a very aggressive defense. You can’t dribble against them, you have to cut them to death. Off the bounce, it wasn’t going to work in our favor.”
Allen pointed to his bench as a defensive factor. Baumgart and Tori Nikirk were on the floor when the shutout started.
“Katie and Tori did a great job in the second quarter, gave us stability in the halfcourt,” Allen said. “That’s what you have to have. That makes good teams.”
BNL will return to action on Saturday, visiting Brownsburg.
SEYMOUR OWLS (25)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
25 Kendall Sterling, f 1-1 3-5 2-4 4 5 9
33 Elizabeth Kirby, f 0-1 1-7 0-1 3 2 2
22 Journee Brown, c 0-0 0-3 0-0 4 1 0
31 Greer Henry, g 0-1 0-1 0-2 5 2 0
23 Brooke Trinkle, g 2-4 2-6 6-6 2 3 12
24 Claire Marshall 0-0 1-1 0-0 1 0 2
10 Jaidyn Nichols 0-1 0-1 0-0 1 0 0
35 Lainey Jackson 0-0 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
32 Sophie Skidmore 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0
3 Emmy Munson 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
5 Sydney Montgomery 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 3-8 7-26 8-13 22 13 25
BEDFORD NL STARS (64)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
2 Chloe Spreen, f 2-2 10-12 0-2 7 1 22
22 Mallory Pride, f 0-0 1-3 1-4 2 1 3
24 Madisyn Bailey, g 2-2 6-12 3-3 5 4 17
20 Emma Brown, g 0-3 0-3 0-0 0 2 0
21 Karsyn Norman, g 2-5 4-9 3-4 0 2 13
32 Trinidy Bailey 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
3 Katie Baumgart 1-1 1-1 0-0 2 1 3
12 Tori Nikirk 0-1 0-1 2-2 0 0 2
40 Bella Jackson 1-1 1-1 0-0 0 0 3
50 Emma Crane 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0
44 Ellie Tillett 0-0 0-0 1-2 0 0 1
23 Katie Godlevske 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0
11 Haleigh Canada 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 8-14 23-43 10-16 21 12 64
Seymour 12 4 7 2 – 25
Bedford NL 11 22 18 13 – 64
Turnovers – Seymour 26, BNL 9
Field goal percentage – Seymour 7-25 (.280); BNL 23-43 (.534)
Free throw percentage – Seymour 8-13 (.615); BNL 10-16 (.625)
