North Putnam struggles early, falls to Rockville

Friday, December 3, 2010

ROACHDALE -- North Putnam's girls ran into one of Indiana's best basketball players Thursday in Beth Mahurin, who dominated with 22 points, 13 rebounds and eight blocked shots to lead Rockville to a 63-27 victory in a non-conference game on the Cougars' court.

"We didn't have an answer for Beth," North Putnam coach Jim Brothers said.

Mahurin is 6-foot-3 with soft hands, knows how to get position, has good footwork and can score with a turnaround shot in the post going in either direction. She's fundamentally sound like you would expect from a coach's daughter, which she is. Father Dave is the boys' coach at Rockville. Her 6-foot-8 brother R.J. is a redshirt freshman at Indiana State. Beth Mahurin has signed to play NCAA Division I basketball and volleyball at Murray State in Kentucky.

"It's tough that she's so athletic," Brothers said.

The Cougars (3-5), who lost their fourth straight, don't have a player taller than 5-foot-10. They tried sagging on Mahurin with a 1-2-2 zone early and she kicked it out to teammates, who made their opening three 3-pointers.

"I thought they (Rox) shot better than they had shown," Brothers said. "We didn't close out on the three pointers."

Rockville (4-3) made eight of its initial field goal attempts to take a 20-2 lead.

The Cougars caught the Rox at the wrong time, too.

"We were injured early this season," Rockville coach Jeff McCoy said. "We had four girls hurt. Beth had an abdominal strain. We didn't get our chemistry going until the last few weeks."

Mahurin scored 16 points in the first half, which ended with Rockville ahead 36-10. She also showed good passing ability, finding the open player on the perimeter.

"Beth did a lot of things tonight that the Murray State coaches want her to work on to play at the next level, like the kick outs," McCoy said.

North Putnam played without senior floor leader Shelby Frye, who fractured her elbow Tuesday in a loss 40-32 loss to Riverton Parke. Frye is expected to be sidelined about two weeks.

The Cougars need the 5-foot-5 guard's ball handling skills. They committed 22 turnovers against the Rox, who stuck to a man-to-man half-court defense.

North Putnam started freshman Bethany Wiatt at point guard.

"I thought Bethany did all right for her first time starting," Brothers said.

Brothers also thought the team effort was there.

"I thought we played hard from start to finish," he said.

Morgan Robinson, a 5-foot-10 sophomore playing in the middle against Mahurin, had six points and four rebounds.

"I thought Morgan competed hard," Brothers said. "She stood out as well as anybody for us."

North Putnam's next game is Tuesday at home against Tri-West.

At North Putnam

Rockville 22 14 13 14 -- 63

North Putnam 8 2 11 6 -- 27

ROCKVILLE

Mahurin 11-19 0-0 22, Lee 3-5 0-0 6, Woodard 3-8 0-0 8, Greene 2-7 1-2 6, Carrington 2-4 3-4 9, Sutherlin 2-3 0-0 4, Gordon 1-5 0-0 2, D. Kelley 3-3 0-0 6, Overpeck 0-2 0-0 0, Donovan 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 27-56 4-6 63.

NORTH PUTNAM

Meg. Robinson 1-7 1-2 4, Asbell 3-10 0-0 6, Lucas 0-7 3-4 3, Wiatt 0-2 1-5 1, Pinney 1-6 1-2 3, Mor. Robinson 2-4 2-2 6, Kientz 0-1 2-4 2, Volland 1-1 0-0 2, Totals 8-38 10-19 27.

3-point field goals: Rock 5-11 (Carrington 2-3, Woodard 2-4, Greene 1-3, Gordon 0-1), NP 1-5 (Meg. Robinson 1-3, Asbell 0-1, Lucas 0-1). Rebounds: Rock 34 (Mahurin 13, D. Kelley 4), NP 29 (Mor. Robinson 4, Piney 4). Turnovers: Rock 12, NP 22. Personal fouls: Rock 14, NP 8. Fouled out: None.