The Cloverdale Clovers girls' basketball team hosted a scrappy Owen Valley Patriot team Monday night

The Cloverdale Clovers girls' basketball team hosted a scrappy Owen Valley Patriot team Monday night.

The Clovers entered the game with high hopes, sporting a 1-1 season record.

Cloverdale played a solid game, but the more experienced Patriots defeated the Clovers, 85-58.

Owen Valley opened up a 23-9 lead at the end of the first quarter, but the Clovers had balanced scoring from Emily Puffer, Hannah Monnett and Ashley Arnold in the stanza.

Cloverdale's offense improved in the second quarter, scoring 20 points in the period.

Heather Moon joined in on the scoring while Puffer, Monnett, and Arnold continued to contribute to their team's point totals.

Owen Valley led going into the locker room, 47-29.

The Patriots' offense exploded at the start of the third quarter, as Owen Valley scored the first 14 points of the stanza, opening up a 32 point lead, 61-29, that was insurmountable for the Clovers.

Ashley Koosman, Chelsie Haltom and Kristin Schroer also got into the scoring column for the Clovers in the second half, and Stephanie Tutterow got a steal for her team.

Cloverdale outscored Oven Valley, 15-8, in the final period, but the 30 points scored by the Patriots in the third quarter proved to impossible to overcome.

"I was really impressed with Owen Valley's ball movement tonight," commented Cloverdale coach Bruce Cook after the game.

"I was also really impressed with their pressure defense. We thought we were really prepared for it, but they caused us to commit many turnovers against it.

"They had scored 61 and 89 points in their first two games of the year, so we knew they were going to be pretty hard to stop on offense.

"We scored 58 points against them, and we were pretty happy to score that many points against a team that was this good. There were a lot of years when Cloverdale didn't score 58 points in three games."

"We've just got to get better at defense," added Cook.

Cloverdale had two players scoring in double figures with Monnett leading the way with 18. Moon followed with 11.

Puffer added nine, Koosman followed with six, Haltom and Arnold chipped in five each, and Schroer closed out the Clover scoring with four points.

Koosman also had a game-high 10 rebounds, five of which were on the offensive end of the floor.

Arnold had the only block of the game, and Monnett had a game-high five assists to go with three steals.

Earlier in the evening, the Clovers were defeated in the junior varsity game 37-26.

Elizabeth Cheatham led Cloverdale in scoring with 11 points, while Allie Franklin added seven. Maria Skiles had four, with Kristin McCammon adding three, and Whitney Bond scored one point.

The Clovers (1-2, 0-0 WCC) play Greencastle in the second game of the Putnam County Tournament Friday night at South Putnam. The game will begin at approximately 7:30 p.m.

At Cloverdale

Cloverdale 9 20 14 15 58

Owen Valley 23 24 30 8 85

Cloverdale -- Haltom 1-3 3-6 5, Tutterow 0-2 0-0 0, Monnett 4-13 8-12 18, Puffer 4-9 0-0 9, Schroer 2-2 0-3 4, Arnold 2-3 1-4 5, Moon 2-5 7-8 11, Koosman 2-4 1-3 6. Totals 17-41 FG 20-36 FT, 58 TP.

Owen Valley -- Gillaspy 1-4 0-0 3, Poland 1-2 0-0 2, Kate Evans 2-4 0-0 5, Kirstin Evans 3-4 0-0 6, H. Gonser 3-10 0-0 7, Strunk 0-3 0-0 0, N. Gonser 4-5 1-2 9, Stahl 9-15 7-9 26, Henson 1-2 2-2 4, Truax 5-7 0-0 10, Matsel 3-3 7-8 13. Totals 32-54 FG 17-21 FT, 85 TP.

3-pt. FG - CL 4-13 (Haltom 0-1, Monnett 2-6, Puffer 1-2, Moon 0-1, Koosman 1-3), OV 4-13 (Gillaspy 1-4, Kate Evans 1-3, Kirstin Evans 0-1, H. Gonser 1-1, Stahl 1-4). Rebounds - CL 28 (Haltom 3, Monnett 4, Puffer 2, Schroer 1, Arnold 3, Moon 5, Koosman 10), OV 30 (Kate Evans 2, H. Gonser 4, Strunk 3, N. Gonser 4, Stahl 3, Henson 3, Truax 6, Matsel 5). Blocks - CL 1 (Arnold), OV 0. Assists - CL 11 (Haltom 1, Monnett 5, Puffer 1, Moon 1, Koosman 3), OV 17 (Kate Evans 2, Kirstin Evans 2, H. Gonser 1, Strunk 1, N. Gonser 3, Stahl 3, Henson 1, Matsel 4). Steals - CL 9 (Tutterow 1, Monnett 3, Arnold 1, Moon 2, Koosman 2), OV 13 (Kirstin Evans 1, H. Gonser 2, N. Gonser 4, Stahl 4, Truax 1, Matsel 1). Total fouls - CL 14, OV 24. Fouled out - Puffer. Turnovers - CL 16, OV 17.

Junior varsity -- Cloverdale lost 37-26.

Next game - The Clovers (1-2, 0-0 WCC) play Greencastle in the second game of the Putnam County Tournament Friday night at South Putnam. The game will begin at approximately 7:30.