Eagles hold Athenians scoreless for final six minutes to claim 16-point win

CRAWFORDSVILLE – There are a lot of beautiful things about basketball — the swish of the net, the perfectly executed pass or the magical spin dribble.

Unfortunately, none of those things were on display at Crawfordsville High School on Tuesday night. The South Putnam Lady Eagles visited for a non-conference girls basketball game and managed to escape with a 39-23 win.

Both teams shot under 27 percent (19-of-72) from the field. Free throw shooting was not much better with the Eagles converting just over half of their attempts (15-of-26), while the Athenians managed to hit just 2-of-16 free tosses.

The Eagles managed to build a lead in the second quarter and maintain that lead most of the game despite the cold shooting and lack of fluidity that you see in most games to pick up the victory. The win was South Putnam’s fourth straight to improve to 6-2, while the Athenians fell to 0-9 on the season.

“We had four days off and came back yesterday. We got on a bus, came up here and it looked like we hadn’t played. At times, we looked like we were stuck to the floor. But any win is a good win,” South Putnam head coach Brian Gardner said.

The Eagles jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead as Chlara Pistelli hit a jumper and a pair of free throws while Madison Gardner got loose for a bucket. Crawfordsville rallied and ended up cutting the Eagle lead to 9-8 at the end of the first quarter on a Yuli Torres three-pointer.

South did appear to take charge in the second quarter. Crawfordsville took its only lead of the night as Litzy Huesca hit a jumper to start the quarter, but the Eagles scored the next 10 points.

Drew Gardner hit a free throw, Pistelli added three points, then Lyla Rissler hit a pair of three-pointers late in the period to give the Eagles a 19-10 lead.

“I thought Lyla played pretty well. She hit some shots and did some good things,” Gardner said of the freshman, who had nine points and a team-high seven rebounds.

The Eagles looked to try and put the game away in the third quarter, but some missed free throws and layups cost them the opportunity to take command.

Crawfordsville could not cut the gap during that time, however, and South Putnam got five-straight points from Pistelli to take 27-13 lead, keeping the gap in double digits until Torres nailed a late three-pointer to set the score at 28-19 ending the third quarter.

Crawfordsville made a small run to cut the Eagle lead to 28-23 two minutes into the final period but a Rissler layup, a Cline rebound bucket and a Pistelli three-pointer capped a mini-run before the Eagle parade to the free throw line started as the visitors held the Athenians scoreless in the final 5:57 of the game.

The Athenians would go 0-of-6 from the free throw line in the quarter as the Eagles gave up nothing uncontested to set the final margin at 39-23.

South Putnam’s Pistelli led the way with a game-high 15 points, while Rissler had nine. Torres was the leading scorer for Crawfordsville with eight points.

The Eagles have a big game on Friday night with Putnam County rival North Putnam and hope to improve the performance and repeat their earlier victory over the Cougars in the County Tourney.

“We will go back and get better. We can fix some things and hopefully come out and play well at home against North Putnam,” Gardner said.

SOUTH PUTNAM (39) – Pistelli 4-10 6-10 15, Cline 1-4 3-4 5, D. Gardner 0-9 3-4 3, Rissler 3-9 1-2 9, M. Gardner 1-1 0-0 2, Emmerich 1-2 2-6 5, Wells 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 10-38 FG, 15-26 FT, 39 TP.

CRAWFORDSVILLE (23) – Pierce 1-5 0-0 3, Hodges 0-5 0-0 0, O. Hedrick 0-0 1-8 1, Moore 1-2 1-4 3, M. Hedrick 1-9 0-0 2, Torres 3-6 0-0 8, Huesca 3-7 0-4 6. Totals 9-34 FG, 2-16 FT, 23 TP.

3-point shooting – SP 4-20 (Pistelli 1-3, Cline 0-1, D. Gardner 0-5, Rissler 2-8, Emmerich 1-2, Wells 0-1), CHS 3-10 (Pierce 1-2, Hodges 0-3, M. Hedrick 0-3, Torres 2-2). Rebounds – SP 27 (Pistelli 5, Cline 5, D. Gardner 5, Rissler 7, M. Gardner 3), CHS – 38 (Pierce 4, Hodges 4, O. Hedrick 7, Moore 3, M. Hedrick 8, Huesca 3) FG Pct. – SP 26.3, CHS 26.5. FT Pct. – SP 57.7, CHS 12.5. Turnovers – SP 15, CHS 26.