Eagles control Clovers, reach finals

Saturday, November 19, 2016
South Putnam's Lillie Stein takes the ball to the middle of the Cloverdale defense in Friday night's county tournament semifinal game.
Banner Graphic/Joey Bennett

Cloverdale girls’ basketball coach Matthew Langdon couldn’t have been more pleased with the way Friday night’s second semifinal game of the Putnam County girls’ basketball tournament started out.

His young Clovers hit a trio of 3-pointers in the first five minutes on their way to an early 11-5 lead, and led 11-7 at the first stop.

Then, things fell apart.

South Putnam shut out the Clovers 11-0 in the second period, and Cloverdale could never recover in a 54-33 defeat.

“We got off to the start that we wanted with two threes early and forced them to call a timeout,” Langdon said. “That was great for our girls; I know they were pumped up before the game.”

The Clovers didn’t score for the final 2:17 of the opening quarter, and led despite shooting just 4 of 15 from the field in the period.

“With an 11-7 lead, l we missed several easy opportunities and could have put some pressure on South Putnam,” he said. “That started to snowball into the second quarter.”

South Putnam coach Brian Gardner was pleased with the physical nature of the game, and credits his early-season schedule for having his team prepared.

“The Edgewood game was a physical game like this one was, and it got us ready for this game,” he said. “We want to make sure that teams know it when they play us. Not in a dirty way, but we want to defend physically and limit the other team to one shot.

“They are a great offensive rebounding team and I thought we did a great job of keeping them off the boards.”

The Eagles got a basket from Jessica Vensko, a 3-pointer from Lillie Stein, and baskets from Maddie McHugh, Aubrey Barker and another from Stein to take an 18-11 halftime lead.

Hailey Thomas of Cloverdale brings the ball upcourt against South Putnam on Friday night.
Banner Graphic/Joey Bennett

South Putnam forced nine second-quarter turnovers by the Clovers, including four in the first 1:40 of the period.

“South Putnam deserves a lot of credit for causing a lot of our turnovers, but we had too many that were just unforced and rushed on our end,” Langdon said. “In the third quarter, we came out and score 16 points and cut it to one point.

“They knocked down some points to score 21, and they seemed to play with much more confidence than we did,” he added. “That will happen with a more experienced team.”

Thomas opened the second half with a basket for the Clovers, and Stein answered with a trey.

Abby Walker hit a trey to start a 7-0 run that Kelsey Helterbrand finished with two straight hoops, and the Clovers trailed just 21-20 with 5:38 left in the period.

Miranda Bieghler came through with another trey, and the Eagles got consecutive treys from Barker and Stein on their way to an 11-0 run that helped give them a 39-27 lead entering the final quarter.

“They did a good job on us defensively, and they caused us to have some turnovers also,” Gardner said. “I thought we really dug down when we needed to.”

The Eagles dominated the final period by a 15-6 margin.

The victory did not come without a huge loss, however.

McHugh hustled from near halfcourt to block a shot during the third quarter and hit the floor hard on the play. She was helped from the court and did not return.

While she only scored two points in this particular game, Gardner recognizes her value.

“She is the ultimate team player who does anything and everything you ask her to do,” he said. “She was making a hard hustle play and went down pretty hard.

“I don’t know exactly how bad the injury is, but for us she is someone who is going to be hard to replace.”

Gardner hopes the injury is not extremely serious, and knows she will still provide help even if she is unable to play.

“She might not make every shot, but she’s going to put herself in a position to be able to help us in many different ways,” he said. “She’s going to be here and cheering us on and being a big part of what we’re doing.”

Langdon — whose regular starting lineup includes one senior, one junior, one sophomore and two freshmen — feels the game will be beneficial to his squad in the long run.

“I think we can move forward, and I still have confidence in my team and what we’re trying to do,” he said. “You have to be in these kinds of moments to learn from them.”

Langdon knows his team cannot overlook tonight’s opponent.

“North Putnam will have a good game plan for us, and they will be eager to get their first win,” he said. “We’re going to have to play well to win.”

Gardner’s team lost a 55-54, double-overtime game to Greencastle in last year’s championship game.

“Greencastle is the county champions, and they have been there and done that,” he said. “They play a great zone, and they have girls who do really good things.”

Gardner’s team committed 29 turnovers against Cloverdale, and he knows that can’t happen again.

“We’re going to have to defend them and take care of the ball better than we did tonight,” he said. “It’s going to be a hard-fought contest. We’re going to have to take that physical approach in the championship.”

SOUTH PUTNAM (54) — Bieghler 3-6 0-0 8, Stein 6-16 2-3 17, McHugh 1-2 0-0 2, Barker 5-14 2-4 15, Nichols 2-6 0-0 4, Capps 2-4 0-0 4, Vensko 1-2 0-0 2, Boswell 0-0 0-0 0, Vanihel 1-1 0-0 2, Hill 0 0-0 0, Bratcher 0 0-0 0. Totals 21-53 FG, 5-7 FT, 54 TP

CLOVERDALE (33) — Walker 3-11 0-0 9, Shrum 0-4 0-1 0, Combs 5-16 1-2 11, Thomas 2-9 0-0 5, Helterbrand 3-9 0-0 6, Price 0-0 0-0 0, Meek 0-3 0-1 0, Simpson 0-0 2-2 2, Shoemaker 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-51 FG, 3-6 FT, 33 TP

South Putnam 7 11 21 15 — 54

Cloverdale 11 0 16 6 — 33

3-point shooting — South Putnam 7-16 (Bieghler 2-5, Stein 3-4, Barker 2-7), Cloverdale 4-13 (Walker 3-8, Thomas 1-4, Meek 0-2). Rebounds — South Putnam 35 (Stein 9), Cloverdale 26 (Combs 9). Turnovers — South Putnam 29, Cloverdale 23.

Next game — South Putnam (3-0) plays Greencastle in tonight’s championship game, while Cloverdale (3-2) plays North Putnam in the consolation game.

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