Rox top Eagles in weather-delayed Holiday Classic

Senior Mallary Cash lines up from three-point range against Rockville on Saturday. She finished with 11 points. (Banner Graphic/JARED JERNAGAN)

When the championship game of the Eagle Holiday Classic tipped off at 3 p.m. Saturday, the South Putnam girls' basketball team was beginning its third game in 22 hours.

So following the Eagles' 50-46 loss to Rockville, South Putnam coach Lindsay Blackman was disappointed but not entirely shocked by the result.

"Coming off such a hard game and so many minutes last night against Greencastle, I felt like we just lost our legs near the end of the game," Blackman said.

It didn't look that way for the Eagles (5-10, 0-2 WCC) with 1:14 to play in the game, after Leanna Masters completed a three-point play with an offensive rebound, putback and made free throw.

From there, however, the Rox' Brittany Gordon hit a layup to give the visitors a lead they would not surrender.

Rockville (6-10, 1-4 WRC) went 4-of-6 foul shots down the stretch to seal the four-point win.

Even after the three-game stretch in which the Eagles went 1-2, Blackman said the experience could serve as a positive in the postseason.

"It can only help playing this much in such a short period of time, get them prepared for playing back-to-back because this is kind of what we're going to face come tournament time," Blackman said. Having it at this point in the season at least gives us that kind of routine and knowing we have some work to do conditioning-wise so we can keep it up at the end of a second game or third game in a row."

The game opened with Masters looking like she would carry the Eagles to victory. She made four of her first five shots, as well as a free throw for nine of the Eagles' 11 first-quarter points.

Afterward, though, she disappeared from the Eagles' offense, a fact Blackman both attributed to the Rox and blamed on her own team.

"Part of it is defensively, people know she's there and double-team her," Blackman said. "Also, we have a tendency to forget about her at times. We get happy with that outside shot and forget to look inside at times, so we need to do a better job of looking for it every possession."

The outside shot did not treat the Eagles kind on Saturday afternoon, as they went 0-11 on the game.

Even with the cold perimeter shooting and no scoring from Masters, South Putnam managed to stretch its lead to 21-16 at halftime.

The third quarter was the difference maker, as the Rox put up 22 points to take a 38-31 lead. Gordon, who scored a game-high 19, lead the third-quarter barrage with a pair of three-pointers.

"They came out shooting really well in the third quarter," Blackman said.

Even so, the Eagles managed to chip away at the lead with key buckets from Aubrey Nichols and Mallory Cash before Masters tied the game at 44.

Masters led the Eagles with 16 points on the afternoon.

South Putnam made the finals with a 47-37 win over Turkey Run in the tournament's first game. Masters led all scores with 17.

Rockville's road to the finals was a 52-30 win over Eminence.

In the consolation game, Turkey Run (1-14, 0-5 WRC) got its first win of the season with a 38-23 defeat of the Eels (1-14).

The all-tournament team included the Rox' Gordon, Jennifer Lee and Alexia Lear and the Eagles' Masters and Cash.

Rockville (6-10, 1-4 WRC): Lee 6-15 5-8 19, B. Gordon 4-10 2-3 11, Lear 4-15 0-1 10, Black 2-8 0-0 6, Boardman 2-4 0-2 4, White 0-2 0-0 0, No. 33 0-1 0-0 0, M. Gordon 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 18-55 FG, 7-14 FT, 50 points.

South Putnam (5-10, 0-2 WCC): Masters 7-11 2-3 16, Cash 4-15 3-4 11, Nichols 3-6 2-2 8, Varvel 3-13 0-0 6, York 1-3 3-3 5, Birt 0-2 0=0 0, Hewitt 0-1 0-0 0, Barnes 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 18-51 FG, 10-12 FT, 46 points.

3-pointers: Rox 7-23 (Black 2=3, Lee 2-4, Lear 2-11, Gordon 1-4, No. 33 0-1), SP 0-11 (Cash 0-7, Nichols 0-3, Varvel 0-1). Turnovers: Rox 5, SP 8. Total fouls: Rox 16, SP 18.

Turkey Run: Wood 4-6 2-3 11, Grayless 3-5 4-5 10, Goddard 2-9 6-8 10, Bowling 2-6 2-3 6, Thompson 0-1 0-0 0, Basan 0-3 0-0 0, Emery 0-0 0-2 0. Totals: 11-30 FG, 14-21 FT, 37 points.
South Putnam: Masters 5-8 7-11 17, Cash 5-13 0-0 11, Nichols 3-10 0-0 8, Varvel 1-5 4-6 6, York 2-2 0-0 4, Hewitt 0-1 1-2 1, Birt 0-4 0-0 0, Barnes 0-1 0-0 0, Cundiff 0-1 0-0 0. Total points: 16-45 FG, 12-19 FT, 47 points.

3-pointers: TR 1-7 (Wood 1-2, Wood 0-1, Bowling 0-2, Emery 0-2), SP 3-9 (Nichols 2-4, Cash 1-5). Turnovers: TR 16, SP 12. Total fouls: TR 17, SP 18.