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Cougars fall to Southmont, 72-61
ROACHDALE — Leading 47-43 after three periods, Southmont opened the fourth quarter on a 13-5 run and cashed in on numerous free throw opportunities down the stretch to defeat North Putnam 72-61 on Wednesday night in boys’ high school basketball action.
Southmont improved to 2-0 on the season, having defeated Turkey Run 80-34 on Tuesday, while the game was North Putnam’s season opener.
The Cougars missed out on several golden opportunities to take a big lead early, hitting just 5 of 18 field goals in the first quarter and trailing 12-11 at the first stop.
Junior Elliot Gross made his Cougar debut, and had nine of his team-high 19 points in the opening period.
“Obviously Elliot did a great job of taking it to the rim, but overall we didn’t finish well,” North Putnam coach Collin McCartt said. “We got some good looks early, but that was kind of what happened in our scrimmage on Saturday [at Barr-Reeve] — we didn’t get going well early.”
Justin Howard hit a pair of free throws to open the second quarter for Southmont and put the Mounties up 14-11, before North Putnam came back to regain the lead on baskets from Dylan Webster and Gross.
Southmont got a basket from Patrick Scheidler and a trey from 6-5 post player Kaleb Swick to take the lead for good. The Cougars would tie the game in the second half, but could never get over the hump.
Swick led Southmont with 25 points and 15 rebounds, while junior guard Camden Chadd added 18 points and 13 boards.
“I thought we really competed, and compete hard,” McCartt said. “There’s not much room for error when you’re defending Chadd or Swick, they’re really good. As hard as Treyton [Smith] was playing [Chadd], he was able to make some really good plays.
“In the second and fourth quarters, they got some rebounds and second chances that gave them momentum.”
The last half of the second quarter was played relatively evenly, with Southmont leading 30-25 at the intermission.
A Ty Williams basket early in the second half put Southmont up by seven, before North Putnam’s shots began to start fall and the Cougars roared back.
Judy hit a basket and Preston Porter added a trey to cut the lead to two, and shortly afterward the Cougars got back-to-back hoops from Duke Duff and Porter to tie the game at 36-36 with 2:59 left in the third period.
Gross added another pair of baskets and Porter another trey in the final minutes of the period, but the Mounties were able to post a 47-43 lead entering the final period.
Swick hit two straight baskets to open the final period for Southmont, and the Mounties then began a parade to the free throw line that saw them hit 7 of 10 over the next three minutes to lead 60-48 with 4:02 to play.
North Putnam’s Smith was held scoreless in the first three quarters, but scored 10 points in the final period.
The first of those baskets came with 4:09 left and cut the lead to 56-48.
Then came a crucial sequence in which McCartt questioned an official’s call as Chadd was fouled, and was assessed a technical foul.
Chadd hit both free throws for the personal foul, and one of the two technical shots. Gross fouled out on the ensuing possession with 4:02 left, and Swick hit a free throw for the 60-48 lead.
“We lost our momentum in the fourth quarter when I got a technical foul, and that’s on me,” McCartt said. “I apologized to them, and my goal is to always put them in a position where they can win. My actions didn’t allow that, so obviously I need to get better at that.”
Playing with relentless and looking to not have the word “quit” in their vocabulary, the Cougars battled back without their leading scorer.
Another Porter trey, a basket plus free throw from Smith and three more Smith free throws cut the Southmont lead to 62-57 with 2:01 to play.
The outsized Cougars were running out of gas, however, and Southmont ended the game on a 10-4 run — all from the free throw line.
The Mounties held a 41-29 rebounding advantage despite excellent blockout fundamentals utilized by the Cougars.
“We have worked on that,” McCartt said. “We have to because of our [lack of] size.”
Judy, a 6-foot senior, led the Cougars with seven rebounds.
“He had a great game,” McCartt said. “A lot of things with him won’t show up in the stat line, and he ran the floor hard.
“He did a lot of the little things that kept us moving in the first half.”
Porter added 11 points for the Cougars, but no one besides him, Gross and Smith had more than five points. The Mounties also got double-figure production from Howard and Williams with 10 each.
“When we get in a shooting slump, we don’t have a lot of room for error,” McCartt said. “They hit some big threes, and we had done the right things in keeping it out of Chadd’s hands.”
McCartt was positive about his team’s outlook going into next Friday’s intracounty home game with South Putnam.
“We were able to see some things that we can go back to practice and fix that are easily fixable,” he said. “Our guys are upbeat, and they understand what they need to improve on and they realize how close we were to winning this game.”
SOUTHMONT (72) — Chadd 6-18 5-8 18, Swick 7-11 10-13 25, VanCleave 1-5 0-2 2, Williams 4-9 2-2 10, Wemer 2-6 0-0 4, Scheidler 1-1 1-2 3, Howard 3-8 2-2 10. Totals 24-58 FG, 20-27 FT, 72 TP
NORTH PUTNAM (61) — Smith 3-12 4-5 10, Duff 2-3 0-0 4, Judy 2-4 0-0 4, Porter 4-15 0-0 11, Gross 9-13 0-1 19, Webster 2-5 0-0 5, Mitchel 1-5 0-0 5, Pickel 2-3 0-1 4, Hess 0-1 0-0 0, Duncan 0 2-2 2, Kendall 0-1 0-1 0, Rude 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-62 FG, 6-9 FT, 61 TP
Southmont 12 18 17 25 — 72
North Putnam 11 14 18 18 — 61
3-point shooting — Southmont 4-16 (Chadd 1-7, Swick 1-2, Williams 0-3, Howard 2-4), North Putnam 5-21 (Smith 0-3, Duff 0-1, Porter 3-10, Gross 1-1, Webster 1-3, Mitchel 0-1, Hess 0-1, Kendall 0-1). Rebounds — Southmont 41 (Swick 15), North Putnam 29 (Judy 7). Turnovers — NP 10, Southmont 10.
Next game — North Putnam (0-1) hosts South Putnam on Friday. Southmont is now 2-0.