Cougars lose close contest with Bruins as Alles drops 19 points

LIZTON -- The North Putnam Cougars were narrowly defeated by the Tri-West Bruins on Tuesday, 47-43.

After struggling during the first half of play, the Cougars seized the momentum in the second half and looked poised to capture its first win of the season.

"We had a tough time scoring in the first half. We turned the ball over quite a bit," Cougar head coach Kevin Smith said.

The third quarter belonged to the Cougars as they threw down 25 points on the Bruins to capture the lead after three quarters. But in the fourth, Tri-West recaptured the momentum and handed the Cougars their seventh loss of the season

"In the third quarter we went on a 25-2 run," Smith commented. "We went from being down 12, to going up 11 at the end of the third quarter and then they outscored us by 15 points in the fourth quarter."

North Putnam received a monster game from Taylor Alles. Alles scored 19 points and pulled down 14 rebounds to lead the Cougars. Carlye McGaughey added 10 points, with Shawna Johnston adding eight and Leah Crosby chipped in six.

The Cougars out rebounded tri-West 43-22 and forced the Bruins into 16 turnovers. Smith put emphasis once again on his team's need to take care of the basketball.

"We need to take care of the basketball. We gave them 16 more opportunities to score and that's tough to recover from," smith observed. "We're down 12 at the half and we came out in the third quarter with a lot of determination and grit. We created some offense with our turnovers.

"We did everything but win," Smith commented.

In junior varsity action, the Cougars lost another close contest with Tri-West 29-26.

Megan Robinson lead the Cougars with 10 points while Shelby Frye and Brianna Bryan five points each. Ashlea Stigall added four points in the loss.

The Cougars will host South Vermillion at 6 p.m. Thursday.

At Tri-West

North Putnam 43

Tri-West 47

North Putnam -- Alles 19, McGaughey 10, Johnston 8, L. Crosby 6.

Junior varsity

North Putnam 26

Tri-West 29

Next game -- The Cougars will host South Vermillion at 6 p.m. Thursday.