Menu
REGIONAL PREVIEW: Eagles hoping to build on last year’s experience
Last year was new territory for South Putnam’s girls’ basketball team.
The Eagles won their first sectional title in more than a decade, and admittedly had a subpar performance against Eastern Hancock in the Speedway Regional. They had a lot of turnovers and shot poorly, still losing only 54-42.
The 19-5 Eagles repeated their sectional title at Cascade last weekend, again surviving two tight games to cut down the nets.
As they prepare to meet No. 8-ranked Triton Central (20-4) in the second game of Saturday’s Speedway Regional, they are hoping to use the experience gained last year to have a better performance this time around and capture the school’s first-ever regional title.
“It’s really special and fun,” senior guard Lillie Stein said of winning her second straight sectional title. “Last year, it was a surprise for us to win. We knew we could win, but we didn’t know if it would happen. This year we knew it was possible, and going into regional we know we actually have a chance at this.”
Stein knows her team did not play well in last year’s regional, and is looking forward to the opportunity.
“We have worked harder since then,” Stein said. “We were a little nervous and scared last year at the regional, and it was a new experience for us. It was a bigger game, and we didn’t come out as strong and confident as we should have been. I think that will be different this year.”
The Eagles barely escaped Western Boone in Friday’s semifinal round, with a last-second basket by Caitlin Capps allowing South Putnam to record a one-point win. On Saturday, the Eagles saw a double-digit lead dwindle to one before they were able to hold off Cascade to record the victory.
A year ago, the Eagles had a one-point win over Southmont, an emotional semifinal win over Cascade and a two-point win over Cloverdale on another game-winner by Capps.
“We have been in tight situations before like in the sectional,” she said. “We kept our calm, kept it cool and kept it together.”
Senior guard Miranda Bieghler shares Stein’s excitement about being a repeat title-holder.
“It’s exciting to be able to do it again, and show people it wasn’t a one-time thing,” she said. “We have continued to improve and get better, and work together as a team.”
Bieghler thought her team’s experience was helpful in pulling out the win over Western Boone.
“We did a really good job of staying calm and composed, and didn’t let all the things happening affect us,” she said. “We were still able to play well. We had a lot of contributions from a lot of people.”
The Eagles did not suffer a letdown on Saturday night, as can happen following a pressure-packed win on the previous night.
“It was momentum to keep going on Saturday,” she said. “Friday wasn’t the championship, so we had to keep on going.”
Bieghler is also looking forward to the regional.
“Last year we were kind of intimidated,” she said. “This year we have earned it. I think we’ll compete better and do well.”
Ally Nichols is an Eagle senior, whose specialty is serving as a defensive stopper off the bench.
Nichols thought a good week of practice leading up to the sectional semifinals was helpful to her team.
“I think we played very well, and we had a great week of practice,” she said. “We were nervous about the game, and that helped our drive to want to win more. Especially after having won it the year before.”
The Eagles had the task of stopping Western Boone standout Madison Jones, the state’s seventh-leading scorer. Nichols drew that assignment frequently throughout the game and embraced it.
“I really enjoyed guarding her,” she said. “I like the challenge, and I felt like I really had to work and I like that. She’s definitely one of the best players we’ve played against this year.”
Nichols is a standout runner on both the South Putnam cross country and track teams, and thinks that training helps her physically to defend better players.
“I think running definitely helps in terms of stamina,” she said. “I don’t get tired as easily, so my endurance is always good. I know I’m not a person to rack up a lot of points, and I definitely try to be the best that I can be defensively for my team.”
Nichols concurs with her teammates about last year’s regional, and also sees a better performance.
“Last year, I think we were prepared but we showed up scared and nervous,” she said. “Instead of being confident in ourselves our nerves got the best of us. We are confident we will play better this year. We have some film on Triton Central, and they have some height and are very scrappy.
“I’m very excited to play them.”
Nichols was glad her coaches counseled the team well on how to play Saturday after Friday night’s big win.
“They told us not to get too big for our shoes and not get over our head,” she said. “We definitely knew Cascade – going from when we played them last year – wanted revenge from last year.”
One thing that has been a problem for South Putnam has been foul trouble.
Fortunately, the Eagles have a deep bench able to step in during such situations; but they would prefer their statistical and emotional leaders to be available at any time.
“I think we were being too aggressive,” Stein said. “Not being smart and fouling 85 feet away from the basket, or not boxing out and fouling because of that.”
Coach Brian Gardner considers his team’s back-to-back titles a “great accomplishment,” and credits the hard work and dedication the players have put into the game for their reward.
“Your goal at the end of every season is to win a sectional, and to do that two years in a row is a really special thing,” he said. “It’s only happened here one other time [2004-05]. Program-wise, for us, to be able to have success – and to have a JV team that went 20-1 this year – is great. I think success breeds success, and any time you can win and bring home trophies it goes down to those younger levels and shows them what they are striving for.”
Gardner is also hopeful his team will respond to the challenge of the regional better than last season.
“Any time you go for the first time, everything is new,” he said. “After that game last year, they thought they had something that was still there that they wanted to go get. I do think that was one of the things that fueled them to work so hard in the off-season.
“They wanted another chance to be sectional champions, and they wanted another chance to be able to go back to Speedway and compete for a regional,” Gardner added. “They have talked about how this time it’s not going to be unfamiliar to them. A lot of times this week can have a lot of distractions, with going to another gym to practice and everything that goes with it. Getting through those distractions will be vital for us, and that will be important for us.”
The Eagles finished last year with a 15-11 record, but with nearly their entire roster back they improved to 19-5 this time around. South Putnam averages eight more points per game than last year, while allowing about the same number of points per game.
“There were times last year when we got down a little bit if we didn’t shoot the ball well,” he said. “This year’s team has not allowed that to deter them from what they are doing and from executing the game plan. That was evident in Friday’s game. We shot the ball very poorly, but we did the other things. We defended, we got loose balls, we got the 50-50 balls and we rebounded.”
An example of the Eagles’ tenacity to overcome poor shooting was the strong offensive rebounding of sophomore guard Lexi Vanihel, neither tall nor exceptionally strong but who often got herself in the right position and scored several key baskets on putbacks.
“That’s one of the things we stress is being in the right position and doing the right thing,” Gardner said. “You can’t control everything in the game, but you can control that. Lexi does a great job of that. Last year, she got to start the last half of last year and she’s come into her own this year.”
One of the biggest things about this year’s team is its depth, which is necessary considering the Eagles’ penchant for accumulating more fouls than desired.
“When Caitlin has been in foul trouble, Aubrey Hill has come in and given us really good minutes,” Gardner said. “Chloe Custis has contributed very well for us in the second half of the year. She has a knack for the ball as well. Alex Bratcher is someone who has started for us the last half of the season. She was a part of the team last year, but didn’t play a lot. I felt like she has come into her own and found that role.
“Each girl on this team knows her role and what is expected of her, and has played that role to a high level.”
Gardner said everything has just come together to make this season possible.
“When you get a team full of girls who all do their roles and like each other this much, it makes seasons like this possible,” he said. “That’s been really big, especially after Christmas when we just lost the one game to Northview. I think that game really helped. We saw the film, saw some things that needed correcting and went back to doing some of those things better.”
Gardner knows Triton Central is a good team and his team’s first-round regional opponent will not be easy.
“They are a little younger,” he said. “They have some good senior leadership, but their two posts are both young and very good. We are going to have to defend inside and also contest shots on the outside. Those are going to be the keys defensively for us.
“We can’t gamble and give them easy shots”
Offensively, Gardner said his team needs to attack the rim.
“Since Christmas break, that’s something we’ve done really well,” he said. “That’s either by getting to the rim off the dribble, or by getting the ball down to Caitlin and let her do some work down there. If they double down on her, she can kick it back out – and that’s when we’re the best is when we’re shooting the ball when that happens.
“We are going to have to stop their transition,” Gardner said. “Their bigs can run, and we are going to have to get back on defense and stop that. If we shoot the ball well, we have a good chance to compete against them.”