Eagles look to carry upward trend into sectional play

Leading scorer and rebounder Trey Moore looks to lift South Putnam over county rival North Putnam tonight in sectional play. (Banner Graphic/JARED JERNAGAN)

The South Putnam Eagles boys' basketball team drew county its rival in the first round of Sectional 44 play and will have a tough contest with the North Putnam Cougars.

Despite finishing the regular season 4-15 the Eagles had some good things happening for them.

"When you only win four games, you would like to win a lot more. The most important thing was we got better," coach Troy Burgess said. "We are a better basketball team now than we were at the beginning of the season. We tried to improve every week and I thought we did."

Despite winning only four games, three of the Eagles' wins have come since Feb. 1.

South Putnam also showed improvement against tonight's opponent, falling to the Cougars 65-48 in the Putnam County Classic on Dec. 7. They narrowed the margin to three, 45-42, when the two teams played on Feb. 7.

The Eagles will lose two seniors, Derek Chestnut and Trey Moore.

"I thought both of them had a great year, they did the things they were capable of doing but more importantly they were great leaders," Burgess said. "I loved how they stayed positive and did a great job with the younger players."

As a team on the year South Putnam scored 44 points per game and allowed 58 per game.

"I think most nights we were able to defend people. You keep teams in the 50s and you will give yourself a lot of opportunities to win," Burgess said. "The problem was we did not score that much. I thought we played well defensively all year."

The team may have a slight advantage since South Putnam is the host site for the Sectional 44 bracket.

"Anytime you play on your home floor its a little bit of an advantage. I mean we get to practice here. At the end of the day the court is still the same size. But I do hope it plays to our advantage," Burgess said.

South Putnam has high hopes for the tournament and it hopes to stay in the game tonight until the very end and to play again Friday.

"We want to go out against North Putnam and be competitive, we were competitive with them three weeks ago at their place and I want to be competitive again," Burgess said. "I want to be competitive and see what happens."