Eagles’ win not pretty, but they’ll gladly take it

Thursday, November 30, 2017
Lexi Vanihel

Reserves pick up slack with starters in foul trouble

Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes all the way through. That summed up the South Putnam Eagles 46-44 victory over the South Vermillion Wildcats in Wednesday night’s girls high school basketball game. Good basketball teams win games when they don’t play well and do not care about style. The Eagles personified that as they improved to 5-1 on the young season.

“We did get the win. That is the number one thing,” South Putnam head coach Brian Gardner said.

The two teams combined to just 27 percent (27-of-99) from the floor, turned the ball over 39 times and committed 41 personal fouls. The two teams scored almost as much in the fourth quarter (40 points) as they did in the first three periods (50 points). In fact, South Vermillion scored more than half of their points in the final stanza alone.

The Eagles jumped out quickly in the game. Lillie Stein scored all five of her first quarter points in he first four minutes and South had a 10-3 lead before the Wildcats closed the gap to 12-6 at the end of the period. The Eagle defense set the tone in the first quarter by forcing seven South Vermillion turnovers and limited the Wildcats to just 2-of-10 shooting.

“Early is big for us to get momentum. We caused them some problems early with our energy and intensity,” Gardner said.

The Eagles extended their lead in the second period despite getting into foul problems. The Eagles extended their lead to 20-14 in the quarter in large part due to Lexi Vanihel scoring six of her team-high 16 points in the period. The Eagles finished the quarter with three players having two fouls and another with three personals, but still managed to have control of the ballgame.

“You tell me we are going to be up at halftime with Miranda (Bieghler), Lillie, Ally (Nichols), and Alex (Bratcher) in foul trouble, I’d tell you that you are crazy. Chloe Custis, Brionna Egold and Aubrey Hill came in and really played well for us,” Gardner said.

The Eagles seemed to put the game out of reach in the third period. South Putnam extended its lead to 31-19 as they continued to harass the Wildcats defensively.

At the end of the third quarter, South Vermillion had hit just six-of-30 from the floor and was having no luck scoring. The Eagles weren’t much better, but kept plugging away by hitting some free throws and limiting the second chances from the bigger Wildcat squad.

“We really made them work on the defensive end and were able to force them into tough shots. You hear college coaches say all the time, ‘When shots aren’t falling you have to get a stop’”, Gardner said.

The Wildcats made their run in the fourth quarter. South Vermillion slowly got back into the game as Rebecca Berry scored 11 of her 12 points in the quarter. The 5-foot-10 sophomore did most of her damage from inside the paint. Mallory Hawkins added five of her game-high 18 points and the Wildcats scored 25 points in the quarter.

“They are long and athletic. I don’t know if we had anybody taller than them on the floor. We had to block out and work hard. We did a good hob of getting back and playing defense,” Gardner said.

The Eagles saw their lead shrink to just one point, 40-39 with just over a minute to play, but a Vanihel old-fashioned three-point play put the Eagles up 43-39 and they were able to hold on for the victory. The Eagles only hit of 2-of-10 from the floor in the quarter, but did get 11 points from the free throw line on 15 attempts. That was important to coach Gardner as the Eagles had struggled from the line in the fourth quarter in earlier games this year.

“We got good looks, we just could not buy a bucket. Towards the end of the game we were able to hit some free throws. We started attacking the rim. We can’t settle for three’s when they are not falling. We did a better job of that tonight,” Gardner said.

Hawkins led all scorers with 18 points, while Berry added 12 points for the Wildcats. Vanihel led the Eagles with 16 points and Bieghler chipped in with 10.

South was able to hold its own on the boards as the Eagles and Wildcats both pulled down 38 rebounds in the game. The Eagles will open Western Indiana Conference play on Friday as they host county rival North Putnam in a boys’ and girls’ doubleheader.

SOUTH VERMILLION (44) – Rippy 4-8 0-0 9, Berry 5-11 2-7 12, Hawkins 4-17 8-9 18, Myers 0-2 2-4 2, Luft 0-2 0-0 0, Silver 0-3 0-1 0, Crouch 0-0 0-0 0, Gilman 1-3 0-0 3, Evans 0-1 0-0 0 Totals 14-47 FG, 12-21 FT, 44 TP.

SOUTH PUTNAM (46) – Nichols 0-0 0-0 0, Bieghler 2-5 5-6 12, Vanihel 5-15 6-10 16, Capps 0-8 3-6 3, Stein 2-9 4-6 8, Bratcher 2-5 0-0 4, Hill 2-7 1-1 5, Custis 0-1 0-0 0, Egold 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 13-52 FG, 19-29 FT, 46 TP.

South Vermillion 6 8 5 25 – 44

South Putnam 12 8 11 15 – 46

3-point shooting – SV 4-13 (Rippy 1-3, Berry 0-1, Hawkins 2-5, Silver 0-2, Gilman 1-1, Evans 0-1), SP 1-14 (Bieghler 1-3, Vanihel 0-4, Egold 0-1, Stein 0-3, Hill 0-1, Bratcher 0-2) REB – SV 38 (Rippy 1, Berry 11, Hawkins 5, Myers 7, Luft 2, Silver 4, Crouch 3, Gilman 4), SP 42 (Nichols 2, Bieghler 7, Vanihel 7, Capps 12, Stein 4, Hill 2, Bratcher 4, Custis 2), FG Pct. – SV 29.8, SP 25.0. FT Pct. – SV 57.1, SP 65.5. Turnovers – SV 21, SP 18.

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