Eagles, Cubs, Clovers get big wins

The South Putnam Eagles girls’ basketball team methodically and surgically took apart the Riverton Parke Panthers Tuesday night. The Eagles dominated the game defensively and offensively to pick up the 69-34 victory.

South improved its record to 13-4 on the season as it forced 26 Panther turnovers and shot 55 percent (24-of-44) through the first three quarters. Lillie Stein’s 26 points (21 of them coming in the first half) allowed the Eagles to cruise to the victory.

“I thought we did a good job of coming out with the emotion of ‘Senior Night’ and really focusing. I thought we came out and really expanded on what we did Friday at Sullivan. Our intensity level was really high,” South Putnam head coach Brian Gardner said.

The Eagles honored Stein, Miranda Bieghler, Ally Nichols and Maddie McHugh prior to the game.

The Eagle defense set the tone early. South forced the Panthers into 11 first-quarter turnovers, which led to some easy baskets. Due to the turnovers, Riverton Parke was only able to get three field goal attempts in the period. Stein paced the Eagles with eight points in the quarter, while fellow senior Bieghler added five of her 16 points in the opening period to give South a 17-4 lead.

“We were able to put them in positions they didn’t want to be in. We got some turnovers and then got some shots and were able to put them in,” Gardner said.

The Eagle defensive intensity didn’t lessen in the second quarter. They forced another seven turnovers, but the offense really kicked it into high gear. Stein caught fire and hit all five of her field goals, including two from long-range. She added a free throw and had 13 points as the Eagles only missed four shot attempts (11-of-15) the entire second period. South scored 25 points in the quarter to go into the break with a 42-13 lead.

“We really moved the ball well and were able to get some good looks. I thought we did a good job of focusing and not playing down,” Gardner said.

The Eagles opened the second half by getting injured senior McHugh a bucket early.

The Eagles continued to score often, while backing out of the pressure defense. The Eagles still outscored the Panthers 17-12 in the quarter head into the final period with a 59-25 lead. Six Eagles were able to score in the quarter led by Caitlyn Capps with four points.

“It was really good to get Maddie McHugh a bucket tonight. It will be a great memory for these seniors’ getting a win in their final game here,” Gardner said.

The Eagles were able to go to their bench early in the fourth quarter with the big lead. They still limited the Panthers to just nine points in the quarter as the finished with 69-34 lead.

The Panthers were led in scoring by Camryn Clapp and Mackenzie Schermann with nine points each. The Eagles put three players in double figures led by Stein’s 26. Bieghler added 16 and Capps 12. South had eight players score and 13 players get playing time.

“It was good that we were able to get some rest and not have to really play some of our girls a lot of minutes, tough minutes with Friday night’s game coming up,” Gardner said.

The Eagles will travel to Northview on Friday night for the final Western Indiana Conference game. Both the Knights and the Eagles enter the game 3-1 in Western division play. The winner will either finish second in the division or have a chance to tie for the division lead.

RIVERTON PARKE (34) – Clapp 1-3 6-10 9, Pharr 1-7 1-3 3, Oldham 3-4 2-2 8, Schermann 3-11 1-3 9, Sowers 1-4 0-0 2, Fellows 0-1 3-4 3, Marion 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 9-31 FG, 13-22 FT, 34 TP.

SOUTH PUTNAM (69) – Vanihel 2-4 0-0 4, Nichols 0-4 0-0 0, Bieghler 4-7 7-7 16, Stein 10-21 1-1 26, McHugh 1-1 0-0 2, Capps 6-7 0-2 12, Hill 2-4 0-0 4, Bratcher 0-2 2-2 2, Custis 1-4 0-0 3, Egold 0-0 0-0 0, Burge 0-0 0-0 0, Steffy 0-0 0-0 0, Proctor 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 26-55 FG, 10-12 FT, 69 TP.

Riverton Parke 4 9 12 9 – 34

South Putnam 17 25 17 10 – 69

3-point shooting – RP 3-13 (Clapp 1-2, Pharr 0-4, Schermann 2-6, Fellows 0-1), SP 7-19 (Bieghler 1-2, Stein 5-14, Bratcher 0-2, Custis 1-1). Rebounds – RP 28 (Clapp 4, Pharr 3, Oldham 3, Schermann 3, Sowers 5, Fellows 4, Marion 3) SP – 28 (Vanihel 5, Nichols 1, Bieghler 2, Stein 6, Proctor 2, Capps 2, Hill 2, Bratcher 3, Custis 4) FG Pct. – RP 29.0, SP 47.3. FT Pct. – RP 59.1, SP 83.3. Turnovers – RP 26, SP 8.

In other girls’ basketball:

• Greencastle 57, North Montgomery 24 — The Tiger Cubs led from start to finish in picking up the Senior Night victory.

The Tiger Cubs led 12-8 after one quarter, but dominated the second period by an 18-2 margin for a 30-10 halftime lead.

Greencastle expanded that advantage to 49-18 after three quarters.

Jalyn Duff led Greencastle with 19 points, while Rose White added 13 and Seelye Stoffregen had 12.

White had nine rebounds.

The Tiger Cubs improved to 11-7 with the win, and will close out Western Indiana Conference play on Friday at North Putnam.

• Cloverdale 52, West Vigo 25 — The Clovers led 19-4 after one quarter, 26-5 at halftime and 36-9 after three periods in winning their 15th game of the season to tie last year’s single-season school record for victories.

Abby Walker led a balanced Clover scoring attack with 12 points, hitting 4 of 9 from 3-point range.

Sammie Shrum added 11 points, while Tori Combs had eight points and 10 rebounds.

Lakkain Price chipped in with six points and seven rebounds, while Hailey Thomas had five points three steals and three assists.

“The girls did a pretty good job on the defensive end,” Cloverdale coach Matthew Langdon said. “We held them to just five points in the first half. We didn’t want to push the ball up the floor, but sometimes we didn’t do exactly what wanted to do offensively.”

The Clovers will host Cascade on Friday in their final divisional conference game, needing a win to stay in contention for the East Division title.

“We are getting toward the end of the year, and we have talked about putting in some extra time,” he said. “We are happy with the win, but want to get back at it in practice to try to get to the point where we are doing good things on both ends of the court.

“Cascade has been playing well and beating a lot of teams, and we’ll have to be ready.”