South Putnam come up short against Cadets

South Putnam's Sawyer Arnold tries to avoid a couple of Cascade defenders during Friday's game.

CLAYTON -- The Cascade Cadets buried the South Putnam Eagles in the opening two quarters Friday night and rolled to a 68-44 West Central Conference victory in boys high school basketball.

Showing signs of frost bite, South Putnam hit just 2-of-16 shots from the floor in the opening half, committed 15 turnovers and trailed 30-9 at halftime. And at the other end, Cascade capitalized on South Putnam's errors to shoot 50 percent (12-24) from the floor.

"(Cascade is) very good. They're very talented group of kids. They're well coached. They played hard," South Putnam coach Troy Burgess said.

South Putnam (2-2, 0-1 in WCC) came to play the second half, but it was far too little and too late. Trey Moore, who got into foul trouble in the second quarter, led the Eagles with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

Cascade (3-1, 2-0 in WCC) was led by Jeff Hopper with 25 points, followed by J.T. Thomas with 17 points.

Cascade was aggressive and physical on the defensive end from the start and that caught South Putnam by surprise. Cascade's Alex Arthur and Thomas stole the ball a combine seven times from South Putnam.

"(Cascade) came out the first half and right out of the gate, they competed. We didn't compete in the first half. There are a lot of things you can point to, but at the end of the day you got to come out to compete. When you come to somebody else's house you better be ready to go. I felt like we weren't ready the first half," Burgess said.

"When you're not ready to play that can only start with one guy. That's got to start with me. So I got to get these guys ready to play."

South Putnam scored more points the third quarter than it did in the entire first half, but Cascade extended its lead to 29 points, 49-20 going into the fourth quarter.

Led by Moore's 12 points and six rebounds, the Eagles put together an attack over the final eight minutes to play. The final 24-point margin was as close as the Eagles got to the Cadets.

"I was very proud of our kids the second half. I thought the second half they competed. They played hard. They still made mistakes, and we're going to make mistakes, but you can't make mistakes and not compete. You do those two things nothing good is going to happen," Burgess said.

South Putnam shot 30 percent (13-43) for the game, but committed just five turnovers over the final 16 minutes. Cascade shot 52 percent (23-44) for the game.

At Cascade

South Putnam 4 5 11 24 -- 44

Cascade 17 13 19 19 -- 68

South Putnam (44) -- Arnold 2-6 2-2 7, Moore 4-8 6-11 14, Chestnut 0-1 0-0 0, Hammond 0-6 0-0 0, Gibson 3-6 0-0 7, Pell 1-5 3-4 6, Kelly 0-2 2-2 2, Bumgardner 3-9 2-4 8. Totals 13-43 FG, 15-23 FT, 44 TP.

Cascade (68) -- Hopper 7-15 9-10 25, Thomas 8-14 1-2 17, Canaday 1-1 1-2 3, Babadilla 0-0 3-6 3, Arthur 4-9 0-2 10, Bajwa 1-1 2-6 4, Western 1-2 0-0 3, Lautenschlage 1-2 0-0 2, Jaggers 0-0 0-0 0, Suter 0-0 0-0 0, Comer 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 23-44 FG, 23-34 FT, 68 TP.

3-Pt. Goals: SP 3-11 (Arnold 1-3, Pell 1-2, Gibson 1-2, Hammond 0-3, Bumgardner 0-1), CHS 5-9 (Hopper 2-5, Arthur 2-3, Western 1-1). Total fouls: SP 21, CHS 18. Fouled Out: Arnold. Turnovers: SP 20, CHS 15. Rebounds: SP 34 (Moore 11, Arnold 6, Hammond 6), CHS 25 (Hopper 5). Steals: SP 7 (Hammond 4), CHS 12 (Arthur 6).

Next game -- On Saturday, South Putnam (2-2, 0-1 in WCC) travels to Southmont.