Eighth-grade Cougars sweep pair from South Putnam

North Putnam and South Putnam split a pair of eighth-grade boys’ basketball games on Monday night.

North Putnam won the “A” game 39-21. South Putnam led 6-4 after one quarter, but the Cougars came back with a strong second quarter and took a 19-12 halftime lead.

The Cougars also dominated the third period with a 14-3 advantage to give them a 33-15 lead going into the fourth quarter.

The Cougars limited their turnovers to only six for the game. The Eagles committed 18 costly turnovers.

Zachary Huff led the Cougars with 12 points, followed by Aaron Pickel with 11 points.

Eli Smith led the Eagles with eight points, followed by Matthew Goodpaster with six, Ryan Lynch with five and Andrew Gilliland with two.

The “B” game was a back- and-forth battle early, with North Putnam pulling out a 29-23 win in overtime.

The Eagles were down 10-6 at the half, but outscored the Cougars in the second half 17-13 to tie it up at 23-23 with 12 seconds to go on a Brett VanRensselaer 3-pointer.

After a good defensive stand, the game went overtime, where the Eagles were outscored 6-0.

VanRensselaer led the way with 10 points, while Andrew Gilliland added six, Sam Hayden had three and Jacob Beadles and Ty Dorsett each had two points.