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Poised Eagles top Clovers in season finale
CLOVERDALE — South Putnam rode the strong offensive performance of senior Lillie Stein to a 61-45 win over Cloverdale in the final regular-season girls’ basketball game for both teams.
Each team finished the season with a 17-5 record, and they could potentially meet in the Cascade Sectional semifinals next Friday if the Clovers win their opening-round game against Western Boone.
Stein had 10 first-quarter points as the Eagles built a 19-10 lead, before the Clovers closed out the period by scoring the final eight points and cut the gap to 19-18 at the first stop.
Cloverdale’s Tori Combs also had 10 points in the first period.
The Clovers took a 21-19 lead on a Kassie Wade 3-pointer to open the second period, and after two straight hoops by South Putnam’s Lexi Vanihel the Clovers got a pair of free throws from Combs and an Abby Walker trey to go up 26-23.
They held that lead until a Stein trey tied the game 30-30. Sammie Shrum hit a layup to put the Clovers briefly back ahead by two points, but the Eagles got a trey from Miranda Bieghler and baskets from Vanihel and Stein in the final 1:42 of the half to take a 37-32 lead into halftime.
Eleven Cloverdale turnovers kept the hosts from keeping their lead, although coach Matthew Langdon thought a 32-point half should have been enough to hold a lead.
“In the first half, we scored 32 points and I thought we had some things clicking,” Langdon said. “The problem was that we were still down five. We didn’t play smart basketball.”
After playing the Eagles four times last season, Langdon thought his team should have been more aware of some things.
“We know this team like the back of our hand, but at times we played like we didn’t know who their best player was,” he said. “Stein is a great player, but for us to allow her to have 17 in a half is inexcusable. We needed to get out on her more.”
The Eagles kept their foot on the gas pedal to open the second half, scoring the first eight points on baskets from four different players to go up 46-32 midway through the period.
Shrum then took a big bite out of that lead with a trey followed by a basket and free throw, and the Clovers were within eight at 46-38 with 3:12 left in the period.
They could only cut the gap to seven by the end of the quarter, and the Eagles dominated the final period by an 11-2 margin to claim the Putnam County paddle and avenge a 73-55 loss in last year’s regular-season finale.
South Putnam coach Brian Gardner was happy with the poise that his team showed.
“We had talked before the game that our main goal was to play well,” Gardner said. “We wanted to keep doing the little things right like we have done since Christmas break.
“I thought we were really composed,” he said. “It’s been a long time since they’ve had the paddle, and I couldn’t be more proud of that group. Sometimes in this type of a situation you can be too amped up and not play as well as you like.”
Stein finished with 27 points, hitting 5 of 7 from 3-point range, with at least one trey in each quarter.
“Lillie has been great all year,” Gardner said. “She is a competitor. Two games ago, she breaks her nose and you couldn’t even tell it.
“She has gained some confidence this year, and one of the main areas is that she stays on the floor and out of foul trouble,” he added. “She puts herself in really good positions, and continues to do the right things.”
Bieghler added 14 points and Vanihel had 11 for the Eagles.
Combs paced Cloverdale with 17 points, while Shrum added 14.
Cloverdale has a slight height advantage over the Eagles, but Gardner was happy his team rebounded well.
“We have done really well on the boards in the second half of the season,” he said. “Cloverdale did a lot of good things that caused us some problems.”
Langdon was not happy that his team committed 23 turnovers
“Our effort was there, but we did a lot of things that we shouldn’t be doing,” he said.
SOUTH PUTNAM (61) — Stein 11-20 0-0 27, Bieghler 4-10 4-6 14, Vanihel 5-8 1-1 11, Capps 2-12 1-2 5, Bratcher 1-2 0-0 2, Hill 0-0 0-0 0, Nichols 1-2 0-0 2, Custis 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-55 FG, 6-10 FT, 61 TP
CLOVERDALE (45) — Combs 6-12 5-5 17, Shrum 6-12 1-3 14, Thomas 1-6 3-5 5, Walker 2-5 0-2 6, McCracken 0-0 0-0 0, Wade 1-4 0-0 3 Price 0-3 0-2 0, Shoemaker 0-0 0-0 0, Shedron 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-43 FG, 9-1 FT, 45 TP
South Putnam 19 18 13 11 — 61
Cloverdale 18 14 11 2 — 45
3-point goals — Stein 5, Bieghler 2, Shrum, Walker 2, Wade.