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CHS earns county win
CLOVERDALE -- The Cloverdale boys' basketball team has been preaching defense since the beginning of the season and the message hasn't changed as Tuesday defense helped CHS earn a 73-46 win over South Putnam.
"It all started with defense and rebounding," CHS coach Patrick Rady Jr. said. "As I told the kids before the game. Defense is a 'want to' thing. I think shots are sometimes going to fall, sometimes they're not. Sometimes you are going to go against some teams that take away things you want to do. But you can always have that desire to guard."
Rady said he challenged his Clover players to have a desire to play defense and it was needed Tuesday because the Eagle came out firing.
While Cooper Neese, Jalen Moore and Nick Winders led the Clover offensive attack in the first quarter, South Putnam saw threes from four different Eagles and the first quarter ended 19-14 with Cloverdale up five.
"We did some things a little better than we have been," Eagle coach Greg Dean said. "We improved a bit in some areas. Cloverdale with Cooper and Jalen, they've got two players that can really score the basketball. It's tough in that situation, especially the way they were shooting tonight, to defend."
Defending the Clovers became next to impossible when Neese began making threes from NBA range and CHS outscored the Eagles 22-9 in the second.
South Putnam's Dean said the Eagles be looking to better defend shooters in the future.
"We have to a better job of being aware of where their scorers are," Dean said. We gave up a lot of corner threes tonight and we didn't do a good job of contesting in the corner. So we've got to get around screens and be aware of guys in certain areas of the floor."
The third quarter for the Eagles was mostly Allen Plunkett who scored eight of the nine Eagle points, however the Clover scoring got more aggressive, as Moore took control either shooting the long ball or driving to the paint. Neese also made six from the field.
"Cooper and Jalen are so unselfish for two guys that can score as they can," Rady said. "This summer Jalen kind of joked that he and Cooper would be the splash brothers. I don't know if we can splash at Cataract Lake. Maybe we can get a splash there."
Moore said the offensive flow was due to the ball movement that CHS used in the game.
"We were just moving the ball the ball had eyes today," Moore said. "We were trusting our teammates and we hit some shots. We've been knocking down shots in practice so it translates over to the games."
The South Putnam junior varsity won its game with the Clovers 50-43.
The Eagles will travel to their WIC Western Division rival West Vigo Friday while Cloverdale will celebrate its 50-year anniversary of the Final Four team of 1966 of Friday against Brown County.
AT CLoverdale
South Putnam 14 9 9 13 -- 46
Cloverdale 19 22 26 6 -- 73
Clover scoring:
26-60 10-16 73 (Neese 12-22 7-8 36, Moore 8-17 1-2 21, Winders 4-11 9, Rossok 1-1 2, Nally 1-4 2, Hall 0-1 1-2 1, Pfaff 0-2 1-2 1)
3-Pt shooting (Moore 5-9, Neese 5-14, Winders 1) Reb: Pfaff 6, Winders 6, Hall 6, Moore 6, Neese 3, Nalley 4 Asst: Moore 4, Winders 3, Neese 1, Hall 1, Watts 1 Stl: Neese 6, Moore 4, Winders 3, Hall 1 Blk: Neese 1 Fouls 11
Eagle Scoring: 18-44 (Plunkett 7-16 1-2 17, Rutter 3-9 2-2 9, Stewart 3-5 8, Grundlock 2-3 6, Clearwaters 1-1 3, Lesko 1-1 2, Scott 0-5 1-1 1)
3-Pt shots: (Stewart 2-4, Grundlock 2-3, Plunkett 2-7, Clearwaters 1-1) Reb: Grundlock 6, McHugh 5, Rutter 4, Plunkett 4, Scott 2, Lesko 2, Stewart 1 Asst: Stewart 3, McHugh 3, Plunkett 1, Scott 1, Fanning 1 Stl: Rutter 3, McHugh 1n Fouls 13