Lady Eagles fall to Vikings

The South Putnam Lady Eagles opened a boys' and girls' Western Indiana Conference high school basketball game at South Putnam on the short end of a 47-33 score to the West Vigo Vikings. The Eagles were outscored 17-4 over the last 10:27 of the game to fall to 7-3 on the year and 0-2 in conference play.

The Eagles battled the Vikings through most of three quarters and were only down by a point 30-29 with 2:27 left in the third quarter, but West Vigo made its run to take home the victory.

The Vikings jumped out to an early lead in the first quarter. West Vigo's Brook Houser nailed two three-pointers in the first quarter, leading the way for a 12-6 lead at the end of the first stanza over the Eagles.

"Tonight was one of those nights they were getting every loose ball. We didn't do a great job of boxing out or being aggressive against them," South Putnam head coach Brian Gardner said.

The Eagles continued to struggle against the Vikings in the second quarter. The Eagles only managed to put seven points on the board as shots were not falling for South Putnam. The Vikings were able to extend their lead to 22-13 by taking the ball to the basket as they scored seven of their 10 points in the quarter from the paint or the free throw line.

South turned the ball over 11 times in the first half and failed to convert on some good looks at the basket. In addition, West Vigo came up with some big offensive rebounds in the half.

"When you don't box out, when you don't defend and take care of the basketball, bad things are going to happen," Gardner said.

South came out in the second half with a different mindset. The Eagles went on a 13-4 run to open the half and had cut the lead to 30-29 before Kylie Cardinal nailed a three-pointer late in the quarter to set the third-quarter score at 37-31. Lillie Stein scored nine of her team-high 15 points in the quarter leading the Eagles.

"When we were aggressive, that was when we made our run. The first five minutes of the second half we really played hard and the way we want to play," Gardner said.

The Vikings slowly pulled away early in the fourth quarter and then shut the Eagles out over the last 3:51 to set the final score of 47-33. The Eagles managed just a Katie Hewitt layup in the final stanza. The Eagles couldn't get open shots to drop and they didn't get a lot of good looks at the basket in the final quarter.

"We didn't make cuts offensively like we should. We just didn't attack them the way we should," Gardner said.

The Eagles were led in scoring by Stein with 15 points. Hewitt supported her with eight points. Cardinal led the way for the Vikings with 19 points and Leah Morrison added 10 for West Vigo. The Eagles are off until they host their own tournament after the holidays.

At South Putnam

South Putnam 6 7 16 2 - 31

West Vigo 12 10 15 10 - 47

Hewitt 4 0-0 3 8, Stein 6 2-4 5 15, Bieghler 2 0-0 4 6, Nichols 1 0-0 0 2, McHugh 1 0-0 0 2, Carmichael 0 0-0 3 0, Modglin 0 0-0 2 0

Three pointers (Bieghler 2, Stein 1)

Curley 0 1-2 0 1, Bowden 0 0-2 1 0, Garrett 1 0-0 0 2, Cardinal 5 7-8 1 19, Edington 1 1-4 2 3, Pointer 1 1-2 1 3, Morrison 5 0-0 1 10, Houser 3 1-4 2 9, Hudson 0 0-0 1 0