Tiger Cubs sweep pair from Cougars

Thursday, January 18, 2018
Baylee Osburn of North Putnam battles the press.
Banner Graphic/JOEY BENNETT

BAINBRIDGE — Greencastle swept a pair of Western Indiana Conference basketball games from North Putnam on Wednesday night, with the Tiger Cub girls winning 53-17 to finish divisional play undefeated and the Greencastle boys winning 62-55 to secure second place in the division.

In the girls’ game, Greencastle led 12-7 at the first stop and 26-11 at halftime.

North Putnam coach Jarrod Duff thought his team had played well, despite its deficit.

“We played well enough to be in the game in the first half,” Duff said. “We just didn’t shoot the ball well enough. We didn’t play very well in the second half.”

The Cougars got baskets from Hannah Sims and Payton Lyons to open the second half, and cut the lead to 26-15.

Greencastle dominated from that point on, scoring the next 13 points with contributions from several different players. Rose White started the barrage with two straight baskets, and Allison Stevens had one basket, Seelye Stoffregen had two hoops and Bailey Shuee added a trey.

The Cubs led 41-17 after three quarters, and scored all 12 of the game’s fourth-quarter points to seal the victory.

“We went through a gauntlet on our side of the conference, and we wanted to finish undefeated,” Greencastle coach Bradley Key said. “This game was a hard game to play, because coach Duff does such a great job of getting his players to play defense. If you let up for a second, they are going to force a turnover.”

Key thought his team shot the ball well, with Stoffregen and Shuee each hitting three treys.

“If we do that, we are going to be tough to defend,” he said. “Our bigs have been good all year. Jalyn Duff distributed the ball well in the second half.”

The reward for Greencastle is a game tonight at Owen Valley, the fifth-ranked team in Class 3A which went undefeated to win the East Division title.

“They are really good, but not unbeatable,” said Key, whose team lost 50-22 at Spencer in the second game of the year.

One thing which bothered Key was his team’s 0-11 night at the free throw line.

Missing lots of gym time over the past week due to weather didn’t hurt his team from the field much, but Key knows the free throws have to come around.

“We’re not going to beat anybody the rest of the year doing that,” he said.

Stoffregen led Greencastle with 15 points, while Stevens had 10 and Shuee had nine.

The boys’ game was much tighter.

Greencastle took a 17-10 lead after one quarter, getting points from six different players.

The Cougars crept back in the game, tying the score at 21-21 on an Andrew Pickel basket with 3:43 left in the half.

Greencastle took a 32-28 halftime lead, but North Putnam opened the second half on a 10-4 run to go ahead 38-36 with 5:05 left in the third period.

The Tiger Cubs scored 10 straight at that point to regain the lead for good, although the Cougars cut the lead to 46-41 with the last four points of the period.

Greencastle scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter to go up 54-41. The Cougars didn’t let up, with a James Duncan steal and layup cutting the gap to 55-50 with 2:28 left.

A Pickel trey with 1:02 left kept the gap at five, but the Cubs sealed the game at the line.

Colin York led Greencastle with 23 points, while Gavin Bollman and Brody Whitaker each had 14.

“We wish we could be playing for the league championship,” Greencastle coach Bryce Rector said. “But we came from last place to second in one year — and were a two-point game away from first. We like where we are going forward.”

Elliot Gross had 23 points for North Putnam, while Pickel added 12.

“There were stretches where we played really well,” North Putnam coach Collin McCartt said. “We gave up some offensive boards again, and those hurt us. There were a few opportunities we missed here and there down the stretch.”

Girls game

GREENCASTLE (53) — White 4 0-2 8, Duff 1 0-0 2, Stoffregen 6 0-0 15, Shuee 3 0-4 9, Stevens 5 0-1 10, Nally 3 0-0 7, Robinson 0 0-2 0, Twigg 1 0-0 2, Slack 0 0-0 0.

NORTH PUTNAM (17) — Tennis 0 0-0 0, Sims 3 3-5 9, Runnells 0 0-0 0, Osburn 1 0-0 2, Lyons 2 0-0 4, Young 0 0-0 0, Gib son 1 0-0 2, Simmerman 0 0-0 0, Gierke 0 0-0 0, Day 0 0-0 0.

Greencastle 12 14 15 12 — 53
North Putnam 7 4 6 0 — 17

3-point goals — Shuee 3, Stoffregen 3, Nally.

Boys game

GREENCASTLE (62) — C.York 9-18 3-5 23, Bollman 6-9 2-4 14, Whitaker 5-12 4-7 14, Hutcheson 1 0-0 2, A.York 0 0-0 0, Wood 3-4 0-0 6, Parmley 1-2 0-0 3. Totals 25-46 FG, 9-16 FT, 62 TP

NORTH PUTNAM (55) — Gross 8-19 7-10 23, Smith 3-7 0-0 9, C.Duncan 1-7 0-0 2, J.Duncan 3-9 0-1 7, Pickel 5-10 1-2 12, Murray 1-4 0-0 2, Davies 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-56 FG, 8-13 FT, 55 TP

Greencastle 17 15 14 16 — 62
North Putnam 10 18 13 14 — 55

3-point goals — C.York 2, Parmley, Smith 3, J.Duncan, Pickel.

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