Lewis goes for 28 as Bulldogs down Eagles

Twenty-eight points from senior Ashley Lewis, including six three-pointers, was too much for the host South Putnam Eagles as the Monrovia Bulldogs went on for a 53-42 victory Wednesday night.

South Putnam got off to a slow start with five early turnovers. Lewis got going quickly for the Bulldogs with five early points.

The Eagles would settle down as a three from Lillian Emmerich and a basket from Madison Gardner kept them close. Monrovia held a slim one-point lead when Lewis drained a three to make it 10-6 after one.

The hosts started executing offensively and were getting good looks from the outside but they just were not connecting, going 6-of-20 from the field in the first half.

They would manage to hang around with gritty defense. Down nine halfway through the second, Joscelyn Pilcher hit a three and scored a tough basket in the paint to cut the margin. Ariel Dooley, with a minute to go, found the basket to make it a two-point game.

Lewis would do the damage again for Monrovia, hitting a late three to keep the visitors up at the half 22-16.

“Outside of the early portion where we turned it over, I thought we had really good ball movement and got really good looks. Sometimes you knock ‘em down and sometimes you don’t. We lost Lewis a few times in the corner and she hit them,” South Putnam coach Brian Gardner said about the first half.

The Bulldogs came out of the locker on fire, getting the first eight points of the second half and building a 14-point lead.

South countered when Chlara Pistelli scored five straight as the Eagles would not go away. Lewis always seemed to get a bucket when the Bulldogs needed one, however, and two more from three-point range late in the quarter extended the lead back out to nine.

An early bucket from Emmerich gave the Eagles hope early in the final quarter. Monrovia then built its lead back up to 15 with eight-straight points.

South continued to fight but could get no closer than nine. Monrovia could not finish them off from the foul line, making only 11-of-21. Time would run out for the Eagles, though, falling 53-42.

Pistelli led the way with 11, Danae Cline scored nine and Emmerich and Pilcher each had eight in a balanced attack. Pilcher added six rebounds while Gardner grabbed five. The Eagles fall to 6-13 on the season and have a busy end of week traveling to Eminence Friday and to Speedway on Saturday.

“These type of weeks will help us get ready for the sectionals when we play Tuesday, Friday and Saturday,” added coach Gardner.

Team Stats

Individual Stats

Scoring - (SP) Pistelli 11, Cline 9, Emmerich 8, Pilcher 8, Dooley 4, Gardner 2; (M) Lewis 28, Murrell 5, Cox 5, Newlin 4, Kluemper 3, three with 2

Rebounding - (SP) Pilcher 6, Gardner 5, Cline 4, Emmerich 3, Pistelli 3, Dooley 1; (M) Murrell 7, Lewis 5, Vaughn 5, Kluemper 4