Veteran Cougars with second-year coach seek improvements

Bethany Wiatt (left) and Taylor Nauert will help the Cougars with a veratile attack. (Banner Graphic/GRANT WIEMAN)

ROACHDALE -- The North Putnam girls' basketball team got off to a slow start last season but found its rhythm by the end of the season when the players and coach Curtis Lawrence started to understand each other.

Now in his second season, Lawrence and his now veteran squad enter the 2013-14 season with clear goals, expectations and a better knowledge of the system.

While the Cougars graduated their leading scorer and best defender, the new group returns four players with starting experience and features a quick, versatile roster than can play both big and small.

"We're a little bit quicker ballclub this year," Lawrence said. "We have the ability to get up and down the floor a little bit ... so we have that to fall back on."

The Cougars have three athletic seniors in Alexandria Land, Bethany Wiatt and Madison Asbell, who will be the primary ball-handlers and help the team's small-ball lineup.

It won't be uncommon, Lawrence said, to surround one post player, sophomore Taylor Nauert, with four guards and try to pressure opponents full court.

"I think you have to be flexible as a team in order to be successful," Lawrence said.

North Putnam has other lineup options as well. Nauert is quick enough to shift to forward to put sophomore Adri Millican in at center with another forward, junior Kayla Clodfelter, slashing and rebounding on the opposite side.

Another lineup, including junior Morgan Smith, could have Nauert at the pivot and four perimeter players spacing the floor.

North Putnam senior Alexandria Land takes the ball up the court during a fastbreak drill during the preseason. Land will take a larger role in the team's offense this season. (Banner Graphic/GRANT WIEMAN)

"We're going to have a little deeper bench," Lawrence said. "Last year I was six, maybe seven (deep). Hopefully we'll be a little bit deeper this year and I can get some people some playing time, get in the rotation and keep our bodies a little bit fresher."

The versatility and depth should give the Cougars options on both ends of the court, which will create open shots if they can take care of the ball.

Getting those shots wasn't a problem during last year's four-win campaign, Lawrence said, it was making them.

North Putnam will need to knock down its open looks to make the pieces come together and several players have come back with dramatically improved shooting, particularly Land.

"She's improved greatly," Lawrence said. "Hopefully we're going to see that this season as games get here and her season gets going. That will be an asset for us. ... All three seniors have been tremendous leaders for us this year. They work hard."

More than individual improvements, the Cougars are hoping to prove they've continued the improvements they made as a team throughout last season.

The team lost its opener with Crawfordsville by 41 and closed that gap to 16 in sectional quarterfinal rematch with the Athenians, leading in the second quarter and trailing by just seven entering the fourth quarter.

Lawrence said his familiarity with not just his own players, but also the opponents, will help make the game plans this season more beneficial and give the veteran team an advantage before games begin.

With more experience, Lawrence said he is hoping the group can double its win total from last season and compete by the end of the year.

"I think we have the team that's capable of doing that," he said. "It's a question of whether we come out and we execute and we take care of the ball."