By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
All basketball teams suffer through tough shooting nights.
Unfortunately for the Seaman girls basketball team, its shooting woes came at a most inopportune time, with a Class 5A state tournament berth on the line Saturday in a sub-state final against Andover Central at Seaman.
Seaman played solid defense, didn't commit a ton of turnovers and for the most part got good shots, but had trouble from start to finish putting the ball in the basket, shooting 21.7 percent in a 52-38 loss.
Seaman's players console each other while Andover Central celebrates at the end of the Jaguars' 52-38 Class 5A sub-state win Saturday night at Seaman. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
"We just didn't have it tonight, but one bump in the road does not sum up our season,'' Seaman coach Matt Tinsley said. "We just had a night where the ball didn't go in the hole.
"Sometimes you can lose games because of a lack of effort, that wasn't the case. You can lose games because you don't run the right alignment and assignment, that wasn't the case. We just didn't hit and you can't do anything about that. Unfortunately it was at the wrong time for us, but we got beat by a really good team of seniors.''
Seaman led 7-6 at the end of the low-scoring opening quarter, but the Jaguars outscored the Vikings 18-9 in the second quarter to take a 24-16 halftime advantage and led the entire second half.
Andover Central, which improved to 17-5, opened the second half with a 7-0 run to take a 31-16 lead with 4:58 left in the third quarter and Seaman got no closer than nine the rest of the way.
The Jaguars, who led by 17 points on multiple occasions in the fourth quarter, got a game-high 15 points from Brittany Harshaw while senior Ellie Stearns added 12 points.
Freshman Anna Becker led Seaman (16-6) with 14 points while freshman Ava Esser added nine points and grabbed 13 rebounds.
Freshman Anna Becker (23) led Seaman with 14 points in Saturday's 52-38 sub-state loss to Andover Central. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Freshman Ava Esser (40) scored nine points and grabbed 13 rebounds in Seaman's 52-38 sub-state loss to Andover Central Saturday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
But although Saturday's loss was a tough way to end the season, Tinsley said he was extremely proud of what the young Vikings (one senior on the roster) accomplished.
"They were so much fun and our future's very bright,'' Tinsley said. "We've got a lot of sad girls tonight but I tell them, 'When you invest a lot, like you did, it does hurt.'
"We want this hurt to fuel our motiavation for the summer and I told the girls, 'We knocked on the door this year, next year we're going to knock it down.' That's our mindset going into the summer.''
ANDOVER CENTRAL GIRLS 52, SEAMAN 38
Andover Central 6 18 15 13 -- 52
Seaman 7 9 11 11 -- 38
Andover (17-5) -- Jefferson 2-5 2-2 6, Stearns 4-9 2-2 12, Harshaw 5-12 4-7 15, Amekporfor-Sadler 2-9 2-2 7, Rogers 2-4 2-2 6, Snodgrass 1-1 0-1 3, Wheatley 1-4 0-0 3. Totals 17-44 12-16 52.
Seaman (16-6) -- Schumann 1-6 0-0 2, T. Stallbaumer 0-8 0-0 0, Becker 4-18 4-6 14, Gormley 2-12 2-4 6, Esser 3-4 3-5 9, Anderson 1-3 0-0 3, J. Stallbaumer 1-3 0-0 2, Spurlock 0-0 0-0 0, Smith 0-1 0-0 0, Wilhelm 0-2 0-0 0, Mills 1-3 0-0 2, Stuewe 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-60 9-15 38.
3-point goals -- Andover Central 6 (Stearns 2, Snodgrass, Harshaw, Amekporfor-Sadler, Wheatley), Seaman 3 (Becker 2, Anderson). Total fouls -- Andover Central 17, Seaman 13. Fouled out – none. Technical fouls -- none.
