Eagles soar past Rox for second straight

The South Putnam Eagles took care of the basketball, played the game at their pace and hit their free throws in Thursday night’s 65-58 victory over the visiting Rockville Rox in a non-conference high school basketball game.

The Eagles used an efficient but aggressive offense on the night, shooting 50 percent (17-of-34) from the field and 78.8 percent from the line as they consistently got in the paint. They also took care of the basketball with only 11 turnovers for the game. South won its second consecutive game and improved to 5-11 on the season. Rockville fell to 11-9 on the season.

“I thought we did a really good job in the first half of playing the game at our pace. We wanted to play inside-out and we did a good job of that,” South Putnam head coach Greg Dean said.

The two teams played a tight first quarter ,with Rockville leading 11-9 at the end of the period. Both teams shot the ball well, combining to hit 8-of-18 from the field, while the defenses controlled the game as they also combined for nine turnovers.

“Our patience offensively was as good as it has been all year,” Dean said. “We didn’t want to settle for threes early.”

The second quarter was almost a carbon copy of the first. The two teams hit 10-of-21 from the field and each scored 14 points. Allen Plunkett scored seven of his 18 points in the quarter to lead the Eagles as they went to the break trailing 25-23.

Rockville’s Logan White scored six points in the quarter as Rockville began to go inside.

The Eagles limited the prolific Rockville shooters from the outside. The Rox only hit 5-of-14 from behind the arc in the game, and didn’t get one to fall in the second period.

“We did a good job of switching things up. We didn’t want to go just straight man-to-man, but threw some different zones at them,” Dean said. “They have some really good shooters and we wanted to limit that. I thought our kids did a really good job of getting out on their shooters.”

The Eagles took control after the intermission. The offensive game plan began to provide results. Dalton Scott hit two consecutive three-pointers early in the quarter to change the game. The sophomore scored nine of his 15 points in the period.

South’s defense forced eight turnovers in the quarter and the Eagles headed to the final stanza with a 43-36 lead. The only thing that kept the Rox in the game was their dominance on the boards in the quarter. Rockville outrebounded the Eagles 9-3 in the quarter getting eight of their 11 points in the quarter after offensive rebounds.

“They did a really good job of coming from the perimeter and crashing the boards,” Dean said. “We told our kids that we need to do a better job of rebounding and they responded in the fourth quarter.”

Usually when you do not attempt a shot from the field in the fourth quarter you don’t win, but the Eagles won the game anyway. South hit an impressive 22-of-28 free throws in the final period. The aggressive Eagles spread the floor and went to the basket picking up foul after foul.

Thomas Fanning scored 11 of his 18 points in the period, as he only missed two of his 13 attempts from the charity stripe.

“We really played with composure. I thought we played really well in the fourth quarter and executed what we wanted to,” Dean said

Rockville’s Landon Newnum led all scorers with 19 points and Hunter Michalic added 10 for the Rox. Plunkett and Fanning led the way for South Putnam with 18 points apiece. Scott added 15 points for the Eagles.

South gets a little rest as the Eagles have eight days off before heading into the Putnam County Classic next weekend to play the Cloverdale Clovers.

ROCKVILLE (58) – Cottrell 4-5 1-1 9, Michalic 3-9 23 10, Spence 3-6 1-3 8, Newnum 4-12 9-9 19, White 3-4 2-2 8, Nichols 0-1 1-2 1, Rowe 1-1 1-2 3, Childs 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 18-39 FG, 17-22 FT, 58 TP.

SOUTH PUTNAM (65) – Fanning 2-7 13-16 18, Schnepp 2-4 2-2 6, Watson 0-0 0-0 0, Scott 4-7 4-6 15, Plunkett 7-14 3-4 18, Arnold 0-0 4-5 4, Zeffel 2-2 0-0 4, Lesko 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-34 FG, 26-33 FT, 65 TP.

Rockville 11 14 11 22 – 58

South Putnam 9 14 20 22 – 65

3-point shooting – RHS 5-14 (Michalic 2-7, Spence 1-1, Newnum 2-5, Childs 0-1), SP 5-9 (Fanning 1-3, Scott 3-3, Plunkett 1-3). Rebounds – RHS 26 (Cottrell 6, Michalic 3, Spence 2, Newnum 1, White 4, Nichols 4, Rowe 2, Childs 1), SP 18 (Schnepp 5, Watson 2, Scott 1, Plunkett 2, Arnold 4, Zeffel 1, Lesko 1) FG Pct. – RHS 46.2, SP 50.0. FT Pct. – RHS 77.3, SP 78.8. Turnovers – RHS 20, SP 11.