By: Lee Ramsey
On a cold night in Pigeon Forge, the Seymour Eagles girls and boys lost to the Pigeon Forge Tigers.
The Lady Eagles lost by a score of 45-41 while the boys lost 63-57.
 The weather was very indicative of the Lady Eagles shooting.
They struggled the entire game offensively both inside and outside.  Seymour, normally a hot outside shooting team, couldn’t buy a bucket shooting seven air balls in the first half alone.
“I don’t know what to say.  We just couldn’t hit a shot all night,” said Seymour Coach Andy Rines.
With 6:36 in the game, Seymour led 35-31 after a long three pointer by Jordan Ballard.  Pigeon Forge regained the lead at 4:22, and then the Lady Eagles took back the lead 9-38 with 2:54 after Hayley Clark hit consecutive seven footers.  The Lady Tigers, however, sealed the final outcome by hitting clutch free throws down the stretch to win by four.
Seymour’s Casie Cowan led all scorers with 18 points while Shea Brown added 10.
All in all, it was not one of the lady Eagles better nights.
On the flip side, the Seymour Eagles Boys team let another close one get away by losing to the Tigers 63-57.
The Pigeon Tigers have won three of their last four games now improving their record to 6 and 7.
The Eagles took advantage of their height and led the Tigers 29-24 at half time.
Good defense and hot shooting quickly turned the game in Pigeon Forge’s favor.  Half time adjustments led to the success by going to a zone defense to combat Seymour’s size advantage.
Skylar Brown scored 21 the first half but cooled off after intermission and finished with 30.
With 6:58 Pigeon Forge junior Benton Tucker drained a three pointer which was pretty much the dagger to the heart.  It gave the Tigers a 49-39 ten point lead and really turned the momentum toward Pigeon Forge.  It was smooth sailing from that point.
Seymour Coach Brian Jesse had this to say,” We just went a little dry midway through the third quarter until halfway through the fourth. It was just one of those spells that we have. We’ve just got to find a way to break through those six minute spells where we’re not scoring, because that’s what’s really hurting us. They did a good job adjusting at halftime. I don’t know if I adjusted really well but they did.”
The Jefferson County game on Friday was snowed out.  Seymour will face Alcoa and Cocke County away, weather permitting.
The next home game for the Eagles is Friday, January 15 against Morristown East.

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