Menu
Ball pressure keys Clovers by SP
Cloverdale used a 23-4 second quarter to defeat South Putnam 66-47 on Tuesday night in boys’ high school basketball action.
The host Eagles led 17-14 after one period, getting scoring from five different players — led by six points from sophomore forward Dalton Scott.
Cloverdale used 3-point baskets from Jake Wilkes and Nick Winders to help take a 12-9 early lead, before the Eagles responded with eight straight points.
Scott opened the run with a basket, followed by hoops from teammates Allen Plunkett and Steven Schnepp and a pair of free throws from Schnepp for a 17-12 lead with 21.2 seconds left in the period.
Jalen Moore hit a late hoop for the Clovers to cut the gap to 17-14 at the first stop.
Moore added 13 points in the second quarter, as the Clovers increased the tempo of the game with full-court man-to-man pressure and broke the game open.
“In the first quarter, we did the things we wanted to do,” South Putnam coach Greg Dean said. “The first three or four offensive possessions were positive and we got some good looks.
“In the second quarter, we had too many one or two-pass possessions and we got to be too quick on offense.”
Moore opened the second quarter with a pair of long treys, and Wilkes followed with a basket to put the Clovers ahead 22-17.
South Putnam did not get its first basket, a layup by Scott, until 4:34 left in the second period. The Eagles would get only another Scott basket the rest of the period, while the Clovers were scoring 15 more points for a 37-21 halftime lead.
Cooper Neese took three shots in the first quarter, scoring his only two points on a layup following a steal, but added a trey and a pair of free throws in the final two minutes of the half to help the Clovers take command.
So what was the difference in the second quarter for the Clovers?
“Our ball pressure was really, really good in the second quarter, and we extended them out farther than they wanted to go,” coach Patrick Rady said. “They have some good shooters, and we wanted them to not be able to get rhythm shots. Defense starts with ball pressure.
“From the second quarter on, our ball pressure was outstanding,” Rady said. “When you get the ball pressure, it helps your interior defense because they can’t pinpoint their passes.”
Scoring is not often going to be a problem for the high-powered Clovers, but Rady knows for his team to be successful that the improvement has to come on the defensive end.
“It was definitely progress from the two weekend games [losses to Indian Creek and Park Tudor],” he said. “Picking them up 84 feet also helped. Last year they got better against our zone presses each time, so we wanted to come out and extend the pressure man-to-man.
“We were able to do a good job of not allowing them to drive,” Rady added. “They drove on us a little bit in the first quarter. I thought we took them out of what they wanted to do.”
The Eagles were forced into nine first-half turnovers, and after shooting 50 percent from the field in the first period they were able to only hit 2 of 14 shots in the second quarter. Dean’s team also hit just 1 of 12 3-pointers in the first half.
“Offense was our downfall,” Dean said. “They put some pressure on us and forced us into a lot of turnovers.
“We also didn’t shoot the ball very well,” he added. “The 3-point field goal is a great equalizer, and they shot it pretty well. You know Cooper and Jalen are going to do that — we didn’t do a great job of taking advantage of things we could have.”
The Clovers scored the first four points of the second half to go up 41-21, and the remainder of the period was played evenly. Cloverdale led 51-32 at the final stop.
The Eagles came to life in the fourth period, scoring the first nine points to pull within 10.
Wes Lesko hit a basket and a free throw, and Plunkett — held to four points through three quarters — hit back-to-back baskets. He was fouled while making the second hoop but missed the free throw, with Scott gathering the rebound and scoring on a putback.
Neese hit a trey, and Lane Watson answered with a two, before the Clovers put things away with a 7-0 run.
Seth Pfaff had two baskets in that run and Moore hit three of four free throws.
The Eagles got another Schnepp basket and a pair of Plunkett free throws, but the Clovers hit 5 of 6 free throws in the final 1:35 to ice the win.
Moore finished with 30 points for the Clovers, while Neese added 20.
Dean admitted that guarding two such talented offensive players is not an easy task.
“It has to be a total team defensive effort, and you have to have five guys who are ready to guard those guys,” he said. “We tried to execute a game plan; we didn’t do a terrible job, but we could have done better. Coach Rady does a great job of putting their guys in positions to score.”
The Clovers will play at Brown County on Friday night, at Greencastle on Saturday and will close out the pre-Christmas portion of their schedule by hosting Monrovia on Wednesday.
Scott led South Putnam with 14 points, while Schnepp added 11 and Plunkett had 10.
Dean’s Eagles have just a Western Indiana Conference game at West Vigo, and he doesn’t think that’s a bad thing.
“It will be good to have a little bit of a break after Friday,” Dean said. “We are a young team, and young teams need more rest and more opportunity to practice than other teams.
“We have to take every opportunity and experience and take something out of it,” he added. “We have to come in and look at stats and the film from this game, take from it everything we can and apply that as we go forward.”
CLOVERDALE (66) — Neese 5-19 7-9 20, Moore 8-14 11-16 30, Winders 1-2 0-0 3, Wilkes 2-2 1-2 6, Pfaff 2-3 0-0 4, Watts 1-3 0-0 3, Rossok 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-42 FG, 19-26 FT, 66 TP
SOUTH PUTNAM (47) — Plunkett 4-15 2-3 10, Scott 7-12 0-0 14, Arnold 1-4 0-2 2, Lesko 2-3 1-2 5, Fanning 0-3 0-0 0, Watson 2-4 0-0 5, Schnepp 4-7 2-2 11, Zeffel 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-49 FG, 5-11 FT, 47 TP
Cloverdale 14 23 14 15 — 66
South Putnam 17 4 11 15 — 47
3-point shooting — Cloverdale 9-23 (Neese 3-12, Moore 3-6, Winders 1-1, Wilkes 1-1, Watts 1-3), South Putnam 2-16 (Plunkett 0-7, Scott 0 -2, Arnold 0-3, Watson 1-1, Schnepp 1-1).