NPHS falls at home 50-38

North Putnam's Corbin Judy takes to the paint against North Montgomery Tuesday. (Banner Graphic/JAY LOCKETT)

ROACHDALE -- After going down early by double digits, the North Putnam boys' basketball team fought back in the second half against North Montgomery in a physical game Tuesday before falling 50-38.

The Cougars had a rough start against the Chargers as defense paved the way to a 7-2 lead after one quarter for North Montgomery.

North Montgomery followed with a 19 -9 second quarter and the Cougars were down 26-11 at halftime.

Corbin Judy earned the only basket in the first and Kyler Jeter was the work horse in the second half. But for a Preston Porter three, Jeter scored all the point for North Putnam in the second as the Cougars tried to feed the post against the physical charger defense.

"I thought we had some very correctable errors," Cougar coach Colin McCartt said. "We had a lot of opportunities we missed eight layups tonight. We were only 5-10 from the line and we gave the ball away with some unforced turnovers. The good things is that those are correctable errors."

Rebounding was tough for the Cougars all night but in the second half North Putnam came out with the some extra effort against North Montgomery, which was playing a full court zone pressuring the ball.

Treyton Smith knocked down all three jumpers including a three and he scored all of the nine points in the third.

The third-quarter effort spilled into the fourth and at one point the Cougars were only down 10 before North Montgomery took the win.

"The third quarters in the last couple of games we really came out soft," McCartt said. "I challenged our guys to compete. This is a point in games where we really need to make a decision about how we were going to compete in the second half. We did."

In the fourth, Porter hit two three-pointers, Austin and Corbin Judy each knocked down a pair from the field and Jeter also contributed to the 18 fourth-quarter points.

"We've just got to focus in practice and understand that we competed hard defensively but it's the mental aspect of the game we need to improve," McCartt said. "We've got to simplify some stuff. We making it simple for them like take care of the ball. With ball fakes be strong with the ball. At time I thought we did that pretty well in second half, even in the first we got some shots that just didn't fall."

North Putnam (3-8, 0-3 WIC) will play Turkey Run (4-5) on Friday.

At North Putnam