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Eagles swoop into NP, win pair
Plunkett, Arnold pace SP boys with 11 each
ROACHDALE — Collin McHartt knows his North Putnam Cougars aren’t going to be a 20-percent shooting team very often this season.
Unfortunately, they were on Friday night as the hosted South Putnam in the Western Indiana Conference opener for both boys’ basketball teams. The Eagles emerged victorious by a 43-34 margin.
“It was a very frustrating night,” he said. “When you think you get some shots and they don’t fall, and you get into foul trouble, you have to use some lineups you haven’t used before. I thought the guys who came in and gave us minutes did a good job.”
McHartt said he didn’t think he did a good job of putting the right combinations on the floor.
“With that being said, I thought we played hard and still had a chance to win in the fourth quarter,” he said. “Our struggles continued at the free throw line. We couldn’t get two in a row and couldn’t get over the hump.”
The Cougars hit just 2 of 9 field goals in the first period, but trailed only 5-4 at its completion since South Putnam was having even more difficulty finding the mark — hitting just 2 of 14 shots in the opening period.
The Eagles opened things up in the second quarter, scoring the first six points on a basket by Allen Plunkett, one by Steven Schnepp and two free throws from Lane Watson for an 11-4 lead.
Treyton Smith hit a trey and the Cougars got three free throws to cut the gap to 13-10, but the Eagles got a basket from reserve center Wes Lesko and two free throws from Garrett Heavin to take a 17-10 halftime lead.
Plunkett, who had only five first-half points, got that many in the first 1:11 of the third period as the Eagles began building their lead. A trey from Austin Arnold put the visitors up 25-14, and Lesko hit a basket and free throw to keep the pressure building on North Putnam. The Cougars hit just 2 of 11 shots in the period, after going 1-for-11 in the second quarter, and just couldn't find the mark.
A Schnepp trey at the third-quarter buzzer put the visitors up 31-18 at the final stop.
The Cougars opened the final period on a 12-3 run to cut the gap to 34-30 with 3:06 to play, but the young Eagles — with no seniors and just two juniors — composed themselves and were able to hang on fir the win.
"We were in a situation like this already at Clay City," South Putnam coach Greg Dean said, with a chance to win in the fourth quarter. "We had a couple last year that we let get away, where we lost some down the stretch. We talked about that, and how we needed to work hard and set good screens.
Dean's team did not exactly burn the nets off, hitting 13 of 40 shots, but thought his team caused a lot of problems for the Cougars.
"We did a good job defensively and a good job of rebounding," he said. "Those things made the difference. We had to work hard to congest the middle as much as we could, and we wanted to limit them to one shot. I think we were pretty good at that."
Plunkett and Arnold led the Eagles with 11 points each, while Schnepp (a freshman) had seven and Lesko contribute five.
Lesko, the team's tallest player, drew praise from his coach for his five-point, eight-rebound effort.
"He doesn't always have the greatest matchup, but he came in and busted his tail," Dean said. "He got some rebounds, and we did a good job of getting him the ball. Those were big minutes from him."
Dean thought a lot of players contributed, especially since several players had foul trouble (Plunketet and Dalton Scott, among those).
"We had a lot of guys who did a lot of really good things," Dean said. "Austin Arnold, Steven Schnepp and several others stepped up. Lane Watson played a heckuva game, especially in the first half."
Smith and Duke Duff led North Putnam with nine points each. Duff made three consecutive seals in the second half, trying to get the Cougars back in the game.
“Duke did a great job of getting in the passing lanes,” McCartt said. “He got some steals and got us going. He did a good job of finishing at the rim.
"If you told me that Plunkett would get 11 points, I would say that we had done a pretty good job of what we wanted to do."
McCartt has a tough road game tonight at Brownsburg, and he's not getting impatient with his team.
“It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” McCartt said. “After we played well against Southmont, I certainly didn’t foresee us having trouble putting points on the board. Unfortunately that’s what happened.”
Dean, whose 2-1 Eagles have already won half as many games as last year and could easily be 3-0, knows his team can't celebrate long.
"We have Bethesda Christian coming in [tonight], and they are a very talented team," he said.
SOUTH PUTNAM (43) — Plunkett 4-14 2-4 11, Fanning 1-4 3-4 5, Scott 0-2 0-2 0, Schnepp 2-4 2-3 7, Arnold 4-7 0-2 11, Watson 0-2 2-2 2, Zeffel 0-3 0-0 0, Vansickle 0-0 0-0 0, Lesko 2-3 1-1 5, Heavin 0-0 2-2 2. Totals 13-40 FG, 12-23 FT, 43 TP
NORTH PUTNAM (34) — Smith 1-8 6-8 9, Gross 3-7 0-6 6, Duff 2-8 5-7 9, Judy 1-6 2-2 4, Porter 0-5 3-4 3, Mitchel 1-1 0-0 2, Webster 0-5 0-2 0, Pickel 0-1 1-2 1, Duncan 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 8-40 FG, 17-28 FT, 34 TP
| South Putnam | 5 12 14 12 — 43 |
| North Putnam | 4 6 8 16 — 34 |
3-point goals — Plunkett, Schnepp, Arnold 3, Smith.
Eagles use 17-7 run in final period to get win
ROACHDALE — Most coaches don’t believe in the concept of the “moral victory,” in which you do something right but still end up losing the game.
North Putnam girls’ coach Jarrod Duff would be completely entitled to chalk one of those up after Friday’s 40-28 loss at home against South Putnam, in which his winless team trailed the Eagles — who have lost only once — by just two points after three quarters.
“I thought coming into tonight, after our last two games, that we could be competitive with South Putnam, and I wouldn’t have said that two weeks ago,” Duff said. “Coming off playing well in spots against South Vermillion, and then against Cloverdale at times, I felt good coming into the game. We sustained that for longer stretches in this game.”
North Putnam scored the first three points of the game, on a basket by Emilee Henninger an a free throw from Aleah Duncan. South Putnam did not get its first points until 42.2 seconds remained, on a basket from Caitlin Capps, and Miranda Bieghler added a hoop 23 seconds later to put the Eagles up for the first time.
The sluggish first period saw only four of 23 field goal attempts found the basket during the first eight minutes.
North Putnam cut its turnover total to five in the first quarter, and continued to play the Eagles evenly throughout the second period. Henninger had two more baskets in the second quarter, while freshman Lexi Vanihel also had a pair of hoops in the period.
A free throw by North Putnam’s Mia Runnels with one minute left before halftime tied the game at 13-13, and Aubrey Barker added a pair of free throws just before halftime to put her team up two at the intermission.
South Putnam coach Brian Gardner didn’t think his team overlooked its opponent.
“Early on, we missed shots,” he said. “One of the things that can happen when you miss shots is that you get a bad vibe of things. As you miss more shots, you continue to get frustrated. We let some of that frustration get into us.”
The situation was different for the Eagles, with the game being the first girl-boy doubleheader of the conference season. Gardner’s team also didn’t start well in a win at South Vermillion on Wednesday, and he thinks focus is the cause.
“You have to have focus from the beginning,” he said. “In that game, it was a Wednesday night and the longest bus ride of the year. We came out poorly, but when we played better as the game went along.
“In this game, during the second half and in the fourth quarter, we made a little bit of a run,” he added. “We didn’t shoot it very well, and we did some uncharacteristic things to come away with a win on the road.”
The improvement of the Cougars was not lost on Gardner.
“You have to give North Putnam a lot of credit,” he said. “They have gotten better every game.”
The third quarter was also played closely, as the Cougars could never regain the lead but never fell behind by more than four points.
A free throw by Vanihel with 48 seconds left gave the Eagles a 23-19 lead, with a Hannah Sims basket with 19 seconds left in the period cutting the gap to 23-21 at the final stop.
The Cougars had only five turnovers in the second and third quarters, combined, but let their guard back down again in the final period.
Six miscues reduced the number of NP shots in the period, and the Eagles won the final quarter by a 17-7 margin to pick up their sixth win of the year against one loss.
South Putnam went to the free throw line 16 times in the final period, hitting 10.
Duff thought his team played well despite falling to 0-9 on the season.
“Defensively we were fantastic,” he said. “Overall, our effort was great. We still had some breakdowns and missed some assignments, but our effort on the defensive end made up for a lot of those mistakes.”
Most previous games were decided early in the first half, and while Duff was glad for the improvement he knows his team must now take that next step.
“It was nice to be able to go into the fourth quarter with a chance to win,” he said. “It was a little disappointing that we weren’t able to close it out in the fourth quarter.”
Mia Runnels paced North Putnam with 10 points, while Henninger had eight and Sims added seven.
Miranda Bieghler led South Putnam with 11 points, while Vanihel added nine points off the bench for the Eagles — helping to fill the void created last month when Maddie McHugh tore an ACL and was lost for the season.
“Lexi is someone who goes 100 percent in practice all the time,” Gardner said. “When you tell her to do something, she does it. When girls do that, they are going to put themselves in the right position. She has played really well the last two games and put herself in a good position. She has knack for the ball. Lillie [Stein] and Miranda are good leaders who are helping her to adjust to the varsity level.”
Duff sees light at the end of the tunnel.
“Our girls have really bought into what we’re trying to do, and that’s not always easy when there isn’t a lot of tangible reward as far as winning a game or being in a game in the fourth quarter,” he said. “They keep coming in, grinding it out and working on getting better. This game was a tribute to that, and they just keep working on getting better every day.”
SOUTH PUTNAM (40) — Bieghler 5-14 0-0 11, Stein 1-7 0-0 5, Barker 29 4-4 8, Nichols 0-6 1-3 1, Vensko 0-0 0-0 0, Capps 2-7 2-5 6, Vanihel 3-7 3-4 9, Boswell 0-1 0-0 0, Hill 0-1 0-0 0. Totals
NORTH PUTNAM (28) — Duncan 0-6 1-2 1, Runnels 3-8 1-2 10, Sims 3-9 1-5 7, Parent 1-3 0-0 2, Henninger 4-8 0-2 8, Osburn 0-1 0-1 0, Lyons 0-2 0-0 0, Spencer 0-0 0-0 0, Tennis 0-4 0-0 0, Young 0-0 0-0 0, Gibson 0-5 0-0 0. Totals 11-46 FG, 3-12 FT, 28 TP
| South Putnam | 4 11 8 17 — 40 |
| North Putnam | 3 10 8 7 — 28 |
3-point shooting — SP 2-11 (Bieghler 1-3, Stein 1-2, Barker 0-2, Vanihel 0-1, Boswell 0-1), NP 3-16 (Duncan 0-4, Runnels 3-8, Sims 0-1, Tennis 0-3).
