Melissa Burch and Molly Thurman couldn’t help but flash quick grins after the type of rebounding night the Seabury Academy duo had against Crest.

But the grins disappeared just as quickly Friday night after recalling their 43-31 loss to the school from Colony.

Burch (24 rebounds) and Thurman (15) combined for 39 of the Seahawks’ 60 boards, while the Lancers came down with 36.

“That’s great – that’s something that they tell us to do all the time,” Thurman said.

The final score didn’t quite reflect the game overall, as the Seahawks were always within arm’s length of Crest – coming as close as three points midway through the final quarter.

However, the Lancers were 9-of-14 from the free-throw line in the second half – most of them coming in the final minutes when Seabury was forced to foul.

While Crest finished 15-of-22 from the charity stripe, Seabury was just 3-of-13 and made just one of its six attempts in the second half.

“We really need to work on our shooting skills,” Burch said. “We’re getting there, but that is something we really need to work on. They made all their free throws, (and) that’s how they finally got away at the end. And so we need to work on that if we want to win games.”

Seabury coach Nick Taylor likewise acknowledged his team needs to become a better free-throw shooting squad, but said there was something else he was more concerned about – his team’s 40 turnovers.

SEABURY ACADEMY SENIOR MOLLY THURMAN shoots over a Crest defender. Thurman scored nine points and pulled down 15 rebounds Friday, but it wasn't enough as the Seahawks fell, 43-31, on their home floor.

“I just stressed to them that if we can do the little things and take care of the ball, we can be a good team,” Taylor said. “Going into Christmas break, we’re going to work on ball-handling, we’re going to work on little things and hopefully we can get to that point where we need to be.”

First-year Seabury boys coach Matthew Downing Jr. said he is also looking forward to the winer break after his team’s 58-31 loss to Crest.

“I think the break is the perfect thing for us simply because at this point with a new system, a new coach, we’ve only had 11 to 12 practices,” Downing said. “So I think over the holiday break we’ll be able to get a lot of work in and accomplish some things – even physically. Do some things with weighted balls and get stronger that way and just get more comfortable with the offense.”

The reason Downing plans to put an emphasis on becoming more physical is due Friday night’s 46-22 rebound differential and 15 turnovers.

“Some of the passes were lazy, weak passes simply because I don’t think we’ve developed physically enough with some of our players,” Downing said.

Along with becoming more physical, Downing hopes Max Cannon and Scotty King – who tied for team-high scoring honors with six points each against Crest – will begin to take control of the team on offense as the season progresses.

“It’s tough to take the leadership role offensively when we’re turning the ball over before we get the ball even into our offense,” Downing said. “I don’t want to put the onus on those two guys, but they are our captains, and how they go is going to be how we go.”