Eagle boys fall to Tri-West

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

The South Putnam boys concluded a rough weekend Saturday night when they fell to Tri-West 66-42.

Senior Michael Sebanc drives to the basket in the first half of South Putnam's 66-42 loss to Tri-West.

With the loss coming on the heels of Friday's 28-point conference loss at Monrovia, there wasn't a whole lot Eagle coach Brian Gardner could say, except that his team needs to get better and control the little things that make the difference in games of this nature.

"I thought we didn't come out early and do the little things that we needed to do," Gardner said. "They looked like they were a step quicker than we were. The little things that we could control, such as boxing out -- we didn't do it last night and once again tonight we didn't do it.

"You have to control all the little things that you do right to make sure that the big things work and we haven't controlled the little things here for a while," he continued.

After tying the game at two on a Conor Frame bucket, the Eagles (2-11, 0-4 WCC) were never really in it again, as the Bruins (4-8, 1-3 Sagamore) outscored them 17-3 for the remainder of the first.

The second was better defensively, but the Eagles could still manage no offense. They trailed 29-14 at the half.

In the first half, turnovers were the big killer, as South Putnam committed nine to the Bruins' two.

While the turnovers were not as much of a problem after the break (six in the second half), the Eagles simply had no answer for the Bruins' scoring tandem of Sam Groth and Randal Lowe. Groth finished the night with 25 points while Lowe had 20.

Although no other Bruin scored more than four points, a total of 10 Tri-West players got on the board for at least two.

On the other hand, Nathan Welty led the Eagles with 11 points. Michael Sebanc was next with seven and Cameron Chestnut came off the bench for seven.

South returns to county and conference play Friday at Cloverdale. Gardner knows his Eagles will need to step up their play to keep pace with their county rival.

"We're going to have to come in this week and get better," he said. "It gives us a week to prepare for Cloverdale. It's their homecoming and they're starting to play better basketball, so we're going to have to step into practice and go hard and get better at our little things. At the end of the day, that's all you can do."

The Eagles visit the Clovers at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

At Greencastle

Tri-West 19 10 21 16 -- 66

South Putnam 5 9 16 12 -- 42

Tri-West (4-8, 1-3 Sagamore) -- Groth 9-13 5-5 26, Lowe 7-14 4-4 20, Pierle 2-2 0-0 4, Skudrovskis 1-2 2-2 4, Call 1-2 0-0 2, Smith 1-2 0-0 2, Keck 1-2 0-0 2, Pfeifer 1-4 0-0 2, Moore 0-1 2-4 2, McVicker 0-2 2-2 2. Totals: 23-44 FG, 15-17 FT, 66 points.

South Putnam (2-11, 0-4 WCC) -- Welty 5-11 0-0 11, Sebanc 3-5 1-2 8, Chestnut 3-8 0-0 7, Frame 2-4 0-0 5, Boswell 1-7 3-4 5, Cash 2-4 0-0 4, Masters 1-3 0-0 2, Zimmerman 0-1 0-0 0, No. 10 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 17-44 FG, 4-6 FT, 42 points.

3-pt FG--TW 5-10 (Groth 3-3, Lowe 2-3), SP 4-16 (Frame 1-1, Sebanc 1-3, Chestnut 1-5, Welty 1-6). Turnovers--TW 7, SP 15. Fouled out--Masters.

JV result -- Tri-West 65, South Putnam 30.

Next game -- South Putnam visits Cloverdale at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: