Cougars can't stop Cadets in second half, lose 62-37

NPHS senior Jake Haste spins for a jumpshot against Cascade. Haste finished with a team-high 13 points in the loss on Friday night. (Banner Graphic/GRANT WIEMAN)

ROACHDALE -- The North Putnam boys' basketball team came up short against Cascade on Friday, getting outscored by 22 points in the second half to lose 62-37.

Cadet senior Hayden Suter had a game-high 27 points, pouring in 20 in the first half alone.

The Cougars battled until halftime but allowed a 9-0 run to start the third quarter that was the beginning of the end.

"We always talk going into halftime: the first three minutes are going to be key coming out in the third quarter," NPHS coach Nathan Martindale said. "We've just got to find our offensive identity. We're not moving the ball. We're not cutting. We're not doing the things that we need to do on the offensive end and we've just got to get better at it."

North Putnam's two bigs, seniors Jake Haste and Jameson Brewer, dominated the ball in the first half -- Haste in the paint and Brewer from the perimeter -- but the pair was matched by Cascade's Daljot Bajwa.

Bajwa was scoreless in the half but pulled in six rebounds and blocked two of his game-high six shots.

"He's got some spring; he's got some rebounding ability to him," Martindale said.

Haste scored 10 points on five-of-nine shooting in the opening half, helping the Cougars trail by only three at the break, but the rest of the team couldn't find the basket.

The rest of the team made only six-of-22 shots.

In the first half, the NPHS defense was able to make up for the offensive shortcomings, particularly when pressing.

"We wanted to press them the whole game, and when we did that we were successful," Martindale said. "But even when we got turnovers, we weren't able to convert of them.

That changed in the second half.

NPHS made only three-of-24 shots.

Bajwa kept the Cougars away from the paint and the perimeter players forced ill-advised attempts until the game got out of hand.

He finished with 17 rebounds; more than Haste and Brewer combined (15).

"We shot 25 percent from the field, and that's not going to win you any ball games," Martindale said. "We were just stale out there. We've got to do a better job offensively of doing things because when you shoot 13 out of 50 from the field, you're not going to win very many ballgames."

The Cougars don't get long to find their rhythm as the team returns to action tonight at Riverton Parke at 7:30 p.m.

At North Putnam
Cascade -- 15 13 16 18 -- 62
North Putnam -- 10 15 7 5 -- 37