Tiger Cubs battle back for conference win

Saturday, January 28, 2006

After being down by 15 points at the end of the first half, Glenn Hile and the Greencastle High School girls' basketball team found themselves winning by two in the end.

The Tiger Cubs defeated North Putnam Friday, 49-47, moving them to 3-2 in the West Central Conference and 9-11 on the season.

'For us to be 3-2 in the conference right now is just exciting,' GHS Coach Glen Hile said.

The Tiger Cubs win wasn't an easy one.

North Putnam dominated the first half of the game. In the first quarter, the Cougars outscored Greencastle 17-4 with Laura Blaydes dealing most of the damage. Blaydes scored 11 of the Cougars quarter points.

In the second quarter, Greencastle came to life a little, but not by much. Blaydes came out to score four quick points for the Cougars, but Greencastle bounced back with a little 6-0 run of their own to cut North Putnam's lead down some. Greencastle would go on and score 10 points in the second quarter while holding the Cougars to only 12 points to end the half.

'North Putnam shot the lights out in the first half and we talked at half time and realized that they would cool off,' Hile said. ''Our goal was to cut the lead by 10 and after the third quarter it was nine.'

Greencastle came out in third quarter and made a statement to the Cougars.

After North Putnam scored two quick baskets for five easy points, the Tiger Cubs turned on the heat and let the shots fly. From the 6:25 mark untill the 2:38 mark Greencastle score 12 unanswered points that included six from beyond the three-point line with Grace Fisher and Stefanie Masten hitting one each. Greencastle led by 20, 34-14, in the early part of the quarter, but after the their run the Tiger Cubs only trailed by 8, 34-26.

Greencastle would go on to outscore North Putnam 18-12, posting their best quarter performance.

The Tiger Cubs carried their momentum into the last period with Kyrian Marshall scoring within the first seconds of the quarter. Both teams traded off baskets, but the last 3:30 minutes of the game belonged to Greencastle. Fisher started it and finished the Tiger Cubs final run of the game. Fisher hit the first of three consecutive Tiger Cub three-pointers with Masten and Weatherford hitting the other two. Greencastle closed the game with a 12-0 run with Fisher hitting the last free throw of the game to give the Tiger Cubs the final.

'We controlled the tempo completely in the first half and our goal in the second half was to stay the same, but we didn't,' NPHS Coach Kevin Smith said 'Sometimes when you throttle down it's hard to throttle back up and we played hard, just not as aggressive.

'We did everything what we wanted to except come out of here with a win,' Smith said.

Hile attributes this win to the many players that stepped up for Greencastle when it need it the most.

'Grace Fisher played her guts out and stepped up and Stefanie stepped up too with a hurt ankle,' he said. 'We challenged them after the first half and stepped up.'

North Putnam falls to 5-12 on the season and 1-3 in the WCC after Friday's loss.

Masten led the Tiger Cubs with 20 points while Marshall followed with eight and Fisher had seven points. Weatherford chipped in five points while Lauren Robertson had four points and Olivia Miller had two points.

North Putnam's offense was paced by Blaydes who had 20 points while Chelsea Greene followed behind with 15 points and Brooke Miller had nine. Shay Skene chipped in two points while Taylor Alles scored two points.

Greencastle is back in action today when it hosts Monrovia at 6 p.m. and North Putnam travels to North Montgomery today for a 12:30 p.m. game.

At Greencastle

Greencastle 4 10 18 17 -- 49

North Putnam 17 12 12 6 -- 47

GC -- Fisher 2 1-2 7, Robertson 1 2-2 4, Miller 1 0-0 2, English 0 0-0 00, Alspaugh 1 0-1 3, Weatherford 2 0-2 5, Marshall 4 0-0 8, Masten 8 2-5 20. Totals -- FG 19-42, FT 5-14, TP 49.

NP -- Alles 0 1-2 1, Blaydes 6 7-10 20, Diebold 0 0-0 0, Doyle 0 0-0 0, Doyle 0 0-0 0, Greene 6 0-1 15, Johnston 0 0-0 0, Miller 4 0-2 9, Pearson 0 0-0 0, Skene 1 0-0 2, Totals -- FG 17-47, FT 8-15, TP 47.

3pt -- GC 6 (two players with two each), NP 5 (Greene 3). Rebounds -- GC 25 (Marshall 9), NP 17 (Blaydes 7). Assists -- GC 4 (Weatherford 3), NP 3 (Miller 2). Blocks -- GC 4 (Marshall 4), NP 0. Steals -- GC 1 (Masten 1 ), NP 14 (Blaydes 2). Total Fouls -- GC 14, NP 15. Fouled Out -- Alles (NP).

Next Game -- Greencastle is back in action on Friday when they host Monrovia starting at 6 p.m. while North Putnam will play today at North Montgomery at 12:30 p.m.

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