South Putnam's late run delivers win

EMINENCE -- South Putnam put together a strong run in the stretch to pull away from Eminence and take a 53-44 victory in a nonconference boys basketball game Saturday on the Eels' court.

The Eagles (4-7) outscored the Eels (2-7) 16-8 in the final 3:44.

"We got a win and we're very excited about that," South Putnam coach Micah Elliott said. "We went 1-1 for the weekend and that's good. We did what we needed to do to win."

Forward Noah Boswell led the Eagles with 14 points and added 10 rebounds. Guard Cameron Chestnut scored 13 and was praised by Elliott for his defense.

The Eagles applied man-to-man full court pressure the entire game. Chestnut, who played 31 minutes, was responsible for hounding the Eels' point guards when they brought the ball up court.

"I think Cameron played the best game he's played all year," Elliott said. "He did a very nice job defensively disrupting their offense."

Boswell made 4-of-8 shots from the field and was 6-of-12 at the foul line. "He was steady and did a nice job on the boards," Elliott said.

Center Adam Masters also had 10 rebounds for the Eagles, who had a 42-34 advantage on the boards.

South Putnam led 23-10 early in the second quarter, but Eminence rallied to trail 27-21 at halftime.

"We played well at times, not so well at other times," Elliott said. "We came out and scored 20 points in the first quarter, but we had five turnovers and gave up four offensive rebounds in the last couple of minutes in the first half. Instead of being up by 15 of 17, we were up by six."

Eminence scored the opening five points of the second half to cut South Putnam's advantage to 27-26.

The Eagles responded by scoring eight straight points.

Dayne Nelson made a 17-foot jumper from the wing and Chestnut had a conventional three-point play on a drive. Chestnut followed with a 3-pointer from the wing.

South Putnam led 37-28 going into the final period.

Keaton Hudson scored seven straight points, on a drive, inside following an offensive rebound, a 12-foot jumper and a free throw, to bring the Eels to within two, 37-35, with 5:10 remaining.

Eminence's Chris Wagner made a free throw at 4:40 cut South Putnam's lead to one.

On its most important possession of the game, South Putnam made a series of crisp passes, terminated by one to the 6-foot-2 Boswell isolated with man coverage deep inside.

Boswell was fouled and made 1-of-2 free throws with 3:44 reaming for a 38-36 advantage.

South Putnam regained possession and junior Trey Vickrey, posting up inside, scored at 3:00.

After Eminence missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw, South Putnam counterattacked and Grant Zimmerman scored on a lay-up for a 42-36 advantage.

Eminence failed to score again and Chestnut scored on a fastbreak lay-up to expand the Eagles' lead to eight.

From there, Eminence was forced to foul. South Putnam made eight straight free throws--two by Dean, four by Zimmerman and two by Chestnut--to put the game away.

South Putnam's next game is Friday night at Greencastle.

At Eminence

South Putnam 20 7 10 16 -- 53

Eminence 10 11 7 16 -- 44

SOUTH PUTNAM (53)

Boswell 4-8 6-12 14, Masters 2-5 0-2 4, Dean 1-6 3-4 5, Frame 1-5 0-0 3, Chestnut 4-12 4-6 13, Vickery 1-1 0-0 2, Freeman 0-2 0-0 0, Zimmerman 1-1 4-4 6, Totals 16-46 19-32 53.

EMINENCE (44)

Kukman 2-8 2-3 6, Wagner 3-7 2-4 8, Lawson 1-6 1-2 3, Shupe 1-9 0-0 2, Hudson 7-14 1-2 16, Gore 1-6 0-0 3, Marcum 0-4 2-2 2, Watkins 2-3 0-0 4, Totals 17-57 8-13 44.

3-point field goals -- SP 2-7 (Frame 1-1, Chestnut 1-5, Nelson 0-1), E 2-15 (Hudson 1-1, Gore 1-5, Kukman 0-1, Marcum 0-2, Wagner 0-3, Shupe 0-3). Rebounds: SP 42 (Boswell 10, Masters 10), E 34 (Kukman 8). Turnovers: SP 14, E 13. Total fouls: SP 17, E 24. Fouled out: Masters, Vickery, Watkins, Wagner.