Tough second half dooms Eagles against Bulldogs

Saturday, January 21, 2012

MONROVIA -- The South Putnam boys' basketball team traveled to Monrovia Friday night, falling to the Bulldogs 68-53.

The Eagles battled Monrovia hard in the first half and looked to be heading to halftime down just 21-19, but a steal and shot at half court at the buzzer instead had them down 24-19.

Head coach Troy Burgess said his team played solid in the first half, but struggled in the second half. The Eagles were outscored 25-20 in the third quarter and 19-14 in the fourth.

"The second half, we turned the ball over and we didn't play very good defense. We gave up 25 points in the third quarter and that's too many points to give up in a quarter," Burgess said.

Trey Moore scored 18 points in his return for an injury, with Seth Hammond adding 15 and Alex Kelly 10 points.

"Three guys in double figures and 53 points is enough to win a ball game. We've got to do a better job on the defensive end and we did the first half. We did a good job in the first half. (In the) second half, we had a letdown on the defensive end," Burgess said.

The game might go as a loss in the books, but Burgess said his team gave it everything they had and acknowledge the loss wasn't for a lack of effort.

"The kid's played hard. We played very hard," Burgess said. "We played physical and they were physical. I'm very proud of our kid's effort. It's not a lack of effort by any means. We just have to take care of the basketball and clamp down a little bit better on the defensive end. If we can do those to things, we can be pretty competitive I think."

At Monrovia

South Putnam 11 8 20 14 -- 53

Monrovia 11 13 25 19 -- 68

Individual Scoring

(South Putnam only)

South Putnam -- Moore 18, Hammond 15, Kelly 10, Arnold 5, Pell 2, Bumgardner 2, Gibson 1.