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South Putnam girls out-hustle North Putnam in second game
The South Putnam girls' basketball team jumped on North Putnam early and then put the halt on any scoring runs that the Cougars tried to get started and after holding the Cougars to five points in the first half the Eagles took the victory 61-15.
"We have to get better at competing," Cougar coach Kevin Corsaro said. "We have some girls that just shut down and don't want to compete when things get tough. It was a tough loss when Taylor (Nauert) went down and that's when we need people to step up and play harder and not give in."
Nauert went down early in the second quarter with a sprained ankle and Corsaro said she won't be available Saturday and likely not by Tuesday, but South Putnam already had a handle on the game as the Eagles went up 12-2 in the first quarter.
"The things that we did tonight defensively," Eagle coach Brian Gardner said. "We've worked on things and tonight was evidence of that. We defended well."
Miranda Beighler continued her consistent season making two from long range en route to 10 points in the first quarter.
Nauert made two foul shots in the quarter. Shelby Suding scored the only three points in the second via a free throw and a bucket. Meanwhile, South Putnam used its nine first-half steals, four from Beighler, to help score 16 in the second quarter.
"(Saturday) night that's going to have to be the same thing," Gardner said. "Greencastle's a great basketball team and they play hard. They do a lot of really good things so for us we're going to have to defend the same way we defended tonight."
North Putnam suffered its third loss in a row and will have one more before a short break at the end of December. Corsaro said the time off will be most welcome as he want to get some consistent practice time in for his Cougars who already had a limited amount of practice before the season started.
"After Tuesday we'll have played eight games, over 25 percent of our schedule already," Corsaro said. "So we could really use a break where we can have some practice time and prepare for teams instead of play a game and two days off, then play a game with one day off."
North Putnam's Suding was active offensively but she and the rest of the Cougars were struggling to stop the Eagles who were scoring in a variety of ways.
South Putnam scored 20 in the third quarter, knocking down free throws and jumpers alike. The Eagles used good passing to get the ball into a good position down low. The Eagles also outrebounded North Putnam 30-21 for the game.
Gardner said it will take the same type of effort Saturday to overcome a Tiger Cub team that will be hungry for a chance to win back the Putnam County Pride Paddle.
"They are going to press us and do some things together," Gardner said. "We need to make sure we play with a purpose. Every pass, every shot and every dribble has t have a purpose to it. (Saturday) it's going to be even more important."
He said it will be incumbent on the Eagle girls to play with that purpose and stop Greencastle from getting on a run.
"A lot of their shots they got off of the press and some turnovers," Gardner said. "We're going to have to make sure we close out. They've got some good shooters and on a good shooter you've got to get a hand up and close out on everything they do. Then you can't give them two chances. If you close out, they're going to hit some shots and they're not going to. One things is we'll have to have helpside and closeout and then we'll have to box and limit them to one."