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Chargers top Cougars in shootout
BAINBRIDGE — North Putnam and North Montgomery entered Tuesday night’s boys’ basketball game both averaging 53 points per game.
After an 18-17 first quarter, though, those averages were clearly going to be surpassed — with the visiting Chargers emerging the winners of a fast-paced 72-67 contest.
“They’ve got some good athletes and they tried to push it up the sidelines a lot,” North Putnam coach Collin McCartt said. “Even though we had talked about it, they got some looks in transition we didn’t want them to get. Both teams shot it pretty well; we definitely wanted to get out the run more.”
The Cougars were playing their second game without four-year starting point guard Treyton Smith, who was injured during the county tournament last week.
Junior James Duncan has taken over Smith’s duties at the point; Smith’s availability for the rest of the season is unknown.
“We’ve been adjusting without Treyton,” McCartt said. “Getting another game under our belt with a different style is only going to help us going into the tournament. James is adjusting to it; it’s a different animal for him, having the ball in his hands so much. He’s doing a good job.”
McCartt thought Duncan’s defense was good, but foul trouble before fouling out hurt his team in the final minutes.
“A lot of guys have been stepping up,” McCartt said. “Chris played well for us in the county tournament and played well again tonight. He’s doing some good things for us.
“Evan Davies has had games with both high and low minutes, but he does whatever needs to be done when he’s in there — and there’s not a lot of guys like that any more.”
The Chargers scored the game’s first eight points in just over two minutes, before the Cougars responded with seven in a row of their own on a Caleb Duncan trey and two hoops from Andrew Pickel.
North Montgomery held an 18-12 lead after a Justin Clary trey with 1:26 left in the period, before James Duncan hit a trey and Elliot Gross added a basket to cut the deficit to one point at the first stop.
The Cougars had one of their best scoring outputs of the year in the second quarter, racking up 21 points on 7 of 10 shooting from the field — numbers that included 5 of 7 from 3-point range.
The Chargers kept pace with 19 points of their own, though, and trailed 38-37 at the half.
North Montgomery started the second half even better than the first, getting nine straight points to assume a 46-38 lead just two minutes into the half. The Chargers edged their lead up to 52-41 midway through the third quarter, but the Cougars got a Pickel basket, a Gross basket and a James Duncan trey to cut the lead back down to four.
The margin stayed at four entering the final period, and a Murray trey early in the fourth quarter cut the Charger lead to one.
North Montgomery responded at the free throw line, making only one basket in the final period but hitting 14 of 16 at the line.
The Cougars cut the deficit to two points twice in the final four minutes, but could get no closer the rest of the way.
Another positive on the night was the ability of Gross to play almost the entire 32 minutes after suffering what appeared to be a serious ankle injury during the county tournament consolation game on Friday.
Gross led the Cougars with 26 points and hauled in nine rebounds, showing no effects of the injury.
“He’s still sore,” McCartt said. “It’s one of those things where he understands that he doesn’t have a whole lot of time left in his senior year. He just got it taped up really well and went out; it got looser as the game went on.”
Pickel added 16 points for the Cougars while Caleb Duncan had 11 and James Duncan had nine.
The Cougars will close out their home schedule on Friday with a Senior Night game against Covington, the No. 1-ranked team in Class 2A.
“Our kids look at it as a challenge,” McCartt said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. They’re just so ridiculously efficient — their point guard averages eight or nine assists and they have three guys averaging double figures..
“They know their roles really well, and a lot of times you don’t see that at this level,” he added. “They share the ball and they know where they are supposed to be. There’s a reason they’re No. 1 in the state.”
The Cougars will close out the season next Friday at Eminence.
North Montgomery has an even tougher overall conclusion to the season, with a road game at Class 3A No. 6 Tri-West on Friday, a home game with Class 3A No. 7 Danville on Tuesday and Senior Night against a 13-6 Greencastle team next Friday night.
NORTH MONTGOMERY (72) — Clary 7-17 7-8 24, Donahue 4-6 0-0 10, Kobel 1-5 5-6 7, Shaw 3-4 2-3 8, Thompson 4-8 0-0 8, Bradford 1-2 0-0 2, Cain 4-4 1-2 9, Warren 0-1 0-0 0, Fritzen 1-1 2-3 4. Totals 25-48 FG, 17-22 FT, 72 TP
NORTH PUTNAM (67) — Pickel 5-12 5-6 16, C.Duncan 4-13 0-0 11, J.Duncan 3-5 0-0 9, Murray 2-6 0-2 5, Gross 10-18 4-5 26, Davies 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-54 FG, 9-13 FT, 67 TP
N.Montgomery 18 19 19 16 — 72
North Putnam 17 21 14 15 — 67
3-point shooting — NM 5-11 (Clary 3-6, Donahue 2-3, Kobel 0-1, Bradford 0-1, Warren 0-1), NP 10-23 (Pickel 1-3, C.Duncan 3-10, J.Duncan 3-5, Murray 1-2, Gross 2-4).