Mike Kraft/MDN
Bishop Ryan’s Hayden Seay appears to cross to an open teammate beneath the basket behind South Prairie-Max’s Jaret Eklie in the course of the first half of a recreation at Bishop Ryan on Tuesday, Jan. 6.
The Seay brothers are your typical teenage siblings, continually making an attempt to outdo the opposite in pleasant competitors, whether or not it’s on the basketball court docket or off.
While older brother Hayden gained the battle on the stat sheet on Tuesday, Jan. 6, Peyton was simply as accountable in serving to the Bishop Ryan boys basketball workforce kick off the rust from Christmas break.
Hayden and Peyton Seay mixed for 34 factors, breaking open an in depth recreation at halftime with a second-half flurry of offense in a 53-36 victory over South Prairie-Max for the Lions’ first win of 2026. The Seays tallied 22 of Bishop Ryan’s 31 second-half factors.
“We started off really slow and sloppy and then had a good talk in the locker room and came out firing,” Hayden Seay mentioned. “Everyone gave all-out effort. Everyone was talking and communicating and we all just fed off each other that entire half.”
The Lions (5-1) held a slim 22-20 benefit on the half, hitting simply 9 pictures over the course of the primary 16 minutes. They managed simply 9 factors within the opening quarter and located themselves trailing 11-9.
“It’s a mixture of everything,” Bishop Ryan coach Broderick Bosch mentioned of the primary half. “Our energy just wasn’t there and I think part of it is coming right out of Christmas break and everyone is back into school and having a bit longer day, and it’s just a mixture of everything that we have to shake off that funk.”
Hayden Seay led all scorers with 9 factors on the break and registered the primary basket out of the locker room to eclipse double figures. From there, Peyton Seay took over the scoring duties, giving the Lions the lead for good with his first bucket of the second half. Peyton Seay sparked an 11-0 run by which he offered seven factors to provide the Lions a 35-25 lead with three minutes left within the third quarter.
“I was just seeing a lot of open shots,” Peyton Seay mentioned. “My teammates were getting me open. My teammates were getting rebounds, kicking it out and passing. It was all just flowing together and got me open to knock down shots.”
The fourth quarter was the Hayden Seay present. With the Lions main 40-29 getting into the ultimate body, Hayden Seay single-handedly outscored the Royals 11-7. He had all however two of Bishop Ryan’s factors within the quarter. Jack Passa put in the one different basket over the ultimate eight minutes.
“We would get the ball moving and we would get a reversal and I would see the defense shift, which gave me a good driving lane to get downhill and score,” Hayden Seay mentioned.
Hayden Seay completed with a game-high 24 factors. Peyton Seay was the one different Lion in double figures, including 10.
With the offense sputtering at occasions, the Lions relied on their protection to maintain them within the recreation early. The Royals led for a lot of the primary half and the entire opening quarter earlier than turnovers allowed Bishop Ryan to seize the lead for the primary time. Hayden Seay and Izaac Strandlien stole the ball within the backcourt on consecutive possessions, resulting in fastbreak layups and fueled an 8-0 run to place Bishop Ryan in entrance 22-17 with 1:37 remaining within the first half.
“That’s the best thing when your offense is stale like it was tonight is try to get some easy transition buckets off steals,” Bosch mentioned. “It’s usually one of the best things you can do. Our defense sparked our offense in that way.”
The Lions’ protection restricted South Prairie-Max to eight subject objectives and no 3-pointers within the first half and 6 subject objectives within the second half. They surrendered simply 16 factors over the ultimate 16 minutes.
“We had a little stretch of turnovers, but we’ve been slowly improving on that,” South Prairie-Max coach Jade Larson mentioned. “Hopefully by the end of the year we have that figured out and we’re playing well together and not turning the ball over and I think that’s what we need to do to make a run. That’s kind of what we’re hoping for, but it has improved and I’m proud of the effort tonight.”
The Royals (3-4) had been lower than 24 hours faraway from a recreation on Monday simply throughout city at Our Redeemer’s. South Prairie-Max misplaced to the Knights by 43 factors. Larson was far more happy with his workforce’s effort on Tuesday.
“Our effort was definitely better tonight,” Larson mentioned. “We put it on our guys defensively that we had to have a way better effort tonight and we did. They proved that tonight that they could do that and that’s what we have to do against good teams. We just have to have that full effort for four quarters now.”
Weston Sauby led the Royals with 11 factors, all of which got here within the opening half. Sauby was chargeable for greater than half of his workforce’s first-half factors. David Eberle and Will Rau every added eight factors. Rau hit each of South Prairie-Max’s 3-pointers.
Bishop Ryan returns to district play when it hosts Drake-Anamoose on Monday, Jan. 12, at 7:15 p.m. South Prairie-Max hosts Glenburn on Friday, Jan. 9.