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An unusually poor 3-point shooting performance last week forced the Heritage High School girls basketball team to adjust its offensive game plan Monday night.

A search for higher-percentage shots took the Lady Mountaineers to the free-throw line.

Failing to connect on a field goal in the final 12 minutes, 19 seconds, Heritage made up for it by hitting 17 of 21 free throws down the stretch to hold off Class AAA newcomer Seymour for a 49-43 victory.

The Lady Mountaineers (3-0) pulled away from a 22-22 tie at halftime by scoring the first eight points of the second half and managed to keep the Lady Eagles (2-1) at arm's length the rest of the way without making a field goal.

Senior guard Lauren Burnett's jumper from the right baseline near the halfway point of the third quarter ended up being Heritage's last made shot.

Seymour, which lost to South Greene in a Class AA sectional last year, went 7-of-14 on free throws.

"The bottom line is they probably just did a little bit better job from the free-throw line than we did," said Seymour coach Andy Rines, who coached Heritage's boys team from 2002 to 2006. "They just converted more opportunities, and in a close game with a good team, that makes a difference. ...

"I just thought it was two really good teams, and they won the game at the free-throw line."

Eagles 73, Mountaineers 68

Seymour built a 10-point halftime lead and withstood an early second-half surge from Heritage to win its official season opener after dropping a pair of Hall of Champions games.

The Mountaineers (1-2) reeled off 12 of the first 15 points in the second half, including nine of junior Matt Wilburn's team-high 18 points, to trim the Eagles' double-digit advantage to 40-39 with 4:45 left in the third quarter.

Heritage kept it close until late in the third quarter before Seymour (1-0) started an 8-2 run that stretched into the opening minutes of the fourth quarter.

Senior guard Chris Smelcer scored eight of his 16 points in the final period, but the Mountaineers never cut their deficit to fewer than five points in the last eight minutes.

Skyler Brown and Tyler Tilson each finished with 18 points for the Eagles.