Cougar girls play tough, drop pair at Speedway

SPEEDWAY - North Putnam dropped a pair of girls' basketball games in the Speedway Tourney on Thursday.

Speedway defeated North Putnam 30-19 in the first round, while Indiana School for the Deaf defeated the Cougars 43-33 in the third-place game.

Coach Jarrod Duff thought the Speedway game was “a disappointing loss” since he thought his team outplayed Speedway in most phases of the game.

“However, we didn’t shoot the ball well enough to win the game,” he said. “We were out of sync at times on the offensive end and our ball movement was as good as it has been for the last couple of weeks. At times, we had some really good possessions that didn’t turn into points. “

Duff thought his team defended well, but missed a lot of open looks at the basket.

“The second quarter killed us offensively,” he said. “We missed six point blank lay-ups in that quarter. Speedway is a good team. For us to defend them well enough to hold them to 30 points says a lot about our energy and effort on the defensive end. “

Dana Tennis and Baylee Osburn led the Cougars with six points each.

Point guard Hannah Sims missed the second game due to illness.

“We came out flat, and didn’t play with a lot of energy on the defensive end,” Duff said. “We were down by as many as 18 points in the third quarter, but we were able to go on a run late in the period and early in the fourth quarter.”

The Cougars cut the gap to as low as six points.

“We just didn’t play well enough to come all the way back,” Duff said. “We are getting closer to turning the corner as a basketball team,” he added. “I am hopeful that we can come out and put it all together against West Vigo [on Friday].”

Tennis led NP with 11 points.

Semifinals

NORTH PUTNAM (19) — Simmerman 0 0-0 0, Sims 1 1-6 3, Runnells 0 0-0 0, Young 1 0-0 2, Osburn 3 0-0 6, Lyons 0 0-0 0, Day 1 0-0 2, Gibson 1 0-1 0, Tennis 2 0-0 6, Gierke 0 0-0 0, O’Neal 0 0-0 0. Totals 8 FG, 1-7 FT, 19 TP

SPEEDWAY (30) — Golden 0 0-0 0, Dalcocabbo 0 0-1 0 0, Gregory 2 0-0 5, K.Smith 1 0-0 2, Lindsey 4 0-0 10, M.Smith 2 0-0 4, Barnes 3 2-2 9. Totals 12 FG, 3-4 FT, 30 TP

North Putnam 7 0 7 5 — 19

Speedway 10 4 10 6 — 30

3-point goals —Tennis 2, Lindsey 2, Barnes, Gregory.

Consolation round

NORTH PUTNAM (33) — Simmerman 0 0-0 0, Runnells 0 0-0 0, Young 2 0-0 4, Osburn 3 0-6 6, Lyons 2 1-4 6, Day 0 0-0 0, Gibson 3 0-1 6, Tennis 3 0-0 11, Gierke 0 0-0 0, O’Neal 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 FG, 1-10 FT, 33 TP

INDIANA DEAF (43) — Lorenzo 2 0-6 2, Smith 2 1-1 5, Puct 2 3-5 7, Skjeveland 4 5-10 13, Bumbala 2 0-0 6, Potherski 4 2-3 10. Totals 15 FG, 11-25 FT, 43 TP.

North Putnam 8 2 16 7 — 33

Indiana Deaf 11 12 11 9 — 43

3-point goals — Bumbala 2, Tennis 3, Lyons.