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Red-hot Clovers win fourth straight
Moore’s 48 ties career record
CLOVERDALE — South Putnam awoke from a first-half slumber to scored 23 third-quarter points on Tuesday night in boys’ varsity action at Cloverdale.
The problem for the Eagles was that Clover standout Jalen Moore, the state’s leading scorer, was just getting started.
Moore built upon his 17-point first half with 31 more in the second half to tie his previous best game against Danville last season and lead the Clovers to a 72-53 victory.
“They spread you out and break you down,” South Putnam coach Greg Dean said. “He’s hard to guard, and he got to the foul line a ton. We have to find a way to handle it if we want to win a county championship or down the line the sectional.”
Cloverdale led 16-10 after one quarter and 35-17 at halftime, getting valuable support from Jake Kelley, Parker Watts and Nolan Kelley — who combined to hit six 3-pointers before halftime.
“We had good spacing and ball movement,” Clover coach Patrick Rady said. “In the first three games of the season, 75 percent of our possessions we did not reverse the ball to the other side. We have been much better at that over the past three games.
“If we can make them guard us longer, that helps our defense.”
The Clovers held Eagle leading scorer Allen Plunkett to five points below his average.
“I think we did a good job on Plunkett,” Rady said. “He can score inside and outside, and he’s got such deep range. That created a challenge for us, but we had a couple of different guys who gave great effort.
“We were fortunate to have a big lead before he got loose.”
Dean felt Cloverdale took advantage of his team’s poor first half to build its big lead.
“We didn’t have much fire in the first half, and we just let them get going and break us down offensively,” Dean added. “They hit nine threes in the first half. When you allow people to do that, it makes for a really long night.”
Dean was pleased with his team’s improved effort over the final two quarters.
Trailing 51-27 with 2:26 left in the third period, the Eagles had their best stretch of the game with a 10-0 run keyed by four points from reserve Kain Gregory and treys from Plunkett and Austin Arnold.
“We have to learn how to keep those runs going,” Dean said. “We cut it to 13 late in the third quarter, but Jalen made it hard for us to do that. Cloverdale increased its 18-point halftime lead to as many as 25 (44-19) just two minutes into the third period.
The Eagles then dominated the rest of the period, which they won by a 23-20 margin.
“We lost our focus,” Rady said. “They drove to the basket and we were in bad defensive position. When you do that, you’re going to foul and give up offensive rebounds.
“You’re going to be late and not help out on shooters, and all of that happened.”
Cloverdale led 55-40 after three quarters, but the Eagles got free throws from Plunkett and Dalton Scott to cut the gap to 55-42.
Moore, who scored all 17 of his team’s points in the fourth quarter, hit a trey and a basket before nailing eight straight free throws to put the game away
Freshman Nolan Kelley supported Moore with nine points on a trio of first-half treys, while Watts added eight.
Plunkett paced South Putnam with 17 while Scott added 10 and Fanning had nine.
The Eagles fell to 3-3 with the loss, their third in the last four games.
Cloverdale won its fourth straight game to improve to 4-2 on the season. Moore dished out nine assists to go with his 48 points, hitting 14 of 26 field goals (including 5 of 9 from long range) and 15 of 16 from the line.
Both teams have Western Indiana Conference games on Friday, as the Eagles host West Vigo and the Clovers entertain Brown County.
“We got better throughout the game and played harder,” Dean said. “We have to watch film and figure out how to get better. We have to find ways to execute game plans better.”
Rady’s team will be playing its fourth game in eight days on Friday, and hosts county rival Greencastle the following night in another double weekend.
“We have an important conference game coming up, and another county rivalry game on Saturday,” he said. “Brown County is better than its record, and Greencastle is improved. We have to continue to do what’s working for us.”
SOUTH PUTNAM (53) — Plunkett 6-16 2-4 17, Scott 2-4 5-8 10, Fanning 2-9 5-5 9, Watson 0-1 0-0 0, Schnepp 0-2 0-0 0, Lesko 2-2 0-0 4, Gregory 3-3 0-0 6, Arnold 3-5 0-0 7, Heavin 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-42 FG, 12-17 FT, 53 TP
CLOVERDALE (72) — Moore 14-26 15-16 48, Wilkes 2-5 0-0 4, Winders 0-1 0-0 0, J.Kelley 1-4 0-0 3, Watts 3-11 0-0 8, N.Kelley 3-6 0-0 9, Miller 0-0 0-0 0, Ashcraft 0-0 0-0 0, Sims 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-54 FG, 15-16 FT, 72 TP
South Putnam 10 7 23 13 — 53
Cloverdale 16 19 20 17 — 72
3-point shooting — South Putnam 5-19 (Plunkett 3-10, Scott 1-1, Fanning 0-3, Schnep 0-2, Arnold 1-3), Cloverdale 11-29 (Moore 5-9, Winders 0-1, J.Kelley 1-4, Watts 2-8, N.Kelley 3-6).
