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Eagle ladies fall in championship game
The South Putnam girls' basketball team hosted its holiday tournament on Saturday afternoon and came out with a second-place finish.
The Eagles first played the Eminence Eels and won by a score 87-27, and in the championship game they faced off with the Rockville Rox who beat the Turkey Run Warriors. The final score of the championship game was 50-41.
South Putnam played well against Eminence and did not have many problems taking the victory. The Eagles forced 31 turnovers and outrebounded Eminence by 36. Leading scorer was sophomore Miranda Bieghler with 18 points.
"I thought against Eminence we moved the ball really well," South Putnam coach Brian Gardner said. "We did a lot of good things against them and forced turnovers. We put ourselves in a good position to get lay-ups."
South Putnam then advanced to face off with Rockville, which previously defeated them on the same court on Nov. 10, 35-34, to give South Putnam its first loss. Rockville was tougher matchup this time around though.
Both teams struggled without their best players on the court due to foul trouble. For Rockville, Meghan White had to sit some during the game with four fouls and two other players had three. South Putnam sophomore Lillie Stein fouled out and fellow sophomores Bieghler and Ally Nichols both had four in the game. Two other South Putnam players had three fouls.
"We were in a position to do a lot of good things," Gardner said. "We did not keep them in front of us defensively. If a team gets by you and your teammate has to step up and help, you need to have perfect defense. We put ourselves in too many situations like that."
South Putnam played very well on the defensive end, creating havoc and forcing 22 turnovers. Seniors Katie Hewitt and Jessica Modglin both had three steals to lead the charge.
Even though the Rox turned the ball over so much, when they were getting shots up, they were good shots. Rockville shot 15-of-33 from the floor. Rockville also was solid from the free throw line, knocking down 19-of-28.
South Putnam led after one quarter and looked to be in control but Rockville tied it up at 24 apiece at the end of the half.
"There are a lot of things on the offensive end," Gardner said. "At times I thought we moved the ball well and other times that we did not move it well. We started to settle and when we did do what we were supposed to do we got ourselves good shots."
In the second half Rockville started to pull away, gaining a 32-27 lead but South Putnam battled back and got the game to 35-31 and started to gain a little momentum.
But Rockville got it back as sophomore Felicity Carrington hit a 3-pointer off of an assist from senior Morgan Black to end the third quarter and extend the Rockville lead to 38-31.
The Eagles shook off that shot at the end of the third and Bieghler opened the quarter with a 3-pointer of her own. After a Hewitt bucket and two Stein free throws the Eagles trailed by just three.
After a turnover by each team, the Rox called a timeout and the Eagles did not have any answer on offense afterward. The Rox rattled off nine straight points and that was the game.
South Putnam struggle mightily on the boards, only getting 20 rebounds while Rockville pulled in 36.
After this tournament the Eagles know what they need to work on in preparation for their remaining schedule to be ready for sectional. They have one remaining home game while playing eight on the road.
"On the defensive side it is the little things," Gardner said. "We typically have done them all year long like keep people in front of us and box people out. In this game we just did not do it the right way."
South Putnam will be back in action when it visits Shakamak on Tuesday.
At South Putnam
Game 1 vs. Eminence
Eminence 5 8 5 9 - 27
South Putnam 27 17 25 18 - 87
SCORING
Eminence (27): Riffel 4-9 2-6 11, Smile 2-5 2-2 6, Hall 1-5 2-2 4, Lang 2-8 0-0 4, Davis 1-2 0-0 2, Owens 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 10-31 (1-9) 6-10, 27.
South Putnam (87):Bieghler 8-13 2-4 18, Hewitt 7-8 0-0 14, Stein 7-16 0-2 14, Capps 4-8 1-2 9, Bratcher 2-3 2-3 6, Modglin 2-6 2-4 6, Nichols 2-2 2-2 6, Carmicheal 2-3 1-2 5, Hawkins 2-6 0-0 4, Vensko 1-3 2-2 4, McIntosh 0-9 1-2 1. Total: 37-77 (0-8) 13-23, 87.
REBOUNDING (Total-offensive)
Eminence (16-1): Lang 5-0, Hall 3-0 Riffel 2-0, Davis 1-1, Morris 1-0, Smile 1-0.
South Putnam (52-30): Stein 8-3, Hewitt 6-5, McIntosh 6-4, Capps 5-3, Bratcher 5-5, Hawkins 5-3, Modglin 4-2, Bieghler 3-2, Vensko 3-2, Carmicheal 2-1, McHugh 1-0.
Assists: EHS 4 (Riffel 2), SPHS 7 (Hawkins 2). Steals: EHS 2 (Davis 1, Hall 1), SPHS 25 (Bieghler 9). Blocks: EHS 1 (Lang 1), SPHS 0.
Turnovers: EHS 31, SPHS 6. Fouls: EHS 13, SPHS 13. Fouled out: Jadie Smile (Eminence).
Game 2 vs. Rockville
Rockville 11 13 14 12 - 50
South Putnam 14 10 7 10 - 41
SCORING
Rockville (50): Black 6-7 11-13 23, White 6-12 3-5 15, Carrington 2-3 2-2 7, Breedlove 1-6 3-6 5, Pratt 0-2 0-2 0, Buell 0-1 0-0 0, Secuskie 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 15-33 (1-4) 19-28, 50.
South Putnam (41): Bieghler 6-17 0-0 15, Stein 4-11 5-10 13, Hewitt 4-9 3-4 11, Carmicheal 1-1 0-0 2, Hawkins 0-2 0-0 0, Modglin 0-2 0-0 0, Nichols 0-3 0-0. Total: 15-45 (3-17) 8-14.
REBOUNDING (Total-offensive)
Rockville (36-9): Pratt 8-2, White 8-1, Secuskie 5-0, Breedlove 4-3, Carrington 3-1, Black 2-0.
South Putnam (20-6): Stein 5-1, Carmicheal 5-0, Hewitt 3-1, Nichols 2-1, Modglin 1-1, Bieghler 1-0.
Assists: RHS 6 (Pratt 4), SPHS 8 (Bieghler 2, Hewitt 2). Steals: RHS 10 (Pratt 4), SPHS 9 (Hewitt 3, Modglin 3). Blocks: RHS 1 (Carrington 1), SPHS 0.
Turnovers: RHS 22, SPHS 15. Fouls: RHS 14, SPHS 20. Fouled out: Lillie Stein (South Putnam).