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Owen Valley hands 16th loss to South Putnam
SPENCER -- The weather played havoc with the South Putnam High School boys' basketball team all week.
Missing a few days in the middle of the week caused the squad to miss a few practices and coach Brian Gardner thought he saw the result of that Friday when his team was soundly defeated on the road by Owen Valley, 81-42.
"The last two games we've played, we had only two practices before the games because of snow days," Gardner said. "You lose some of that timing, some of that preparation. The kids' routines got thrown off."
South Putnam dropped to 3-16 overall with the loss.
South Putnam scored the first bucket of the game when Adam Nees stole the ball from Owen Valley's Jared Maners and drove coast-to-coast for a layup.
However, the flood gates opened from there, as the patriots went on a 11-0 run to take a commanding 11-2 lead.
South Putnam stopped the bleeding temporarily when Ben Anderson hit a jumper and the shot seemed to spark the Eagles as they played even with the Patriots the remainder of the quarter and trailed, 21-12, heading into the second period.
The Eagles opened the second frame with a bucket by Anderson but Owen Valley responded with 13 straight points to take a 34-14 lead with 2:40 remaining before halftime.
South Putnam's Noah Boswell stopped the Owen Valley run with a three-point play and Adam Masters added another bucket but the Patriots led, 42-22 by halftime thanks to a buzzer-beating three-pointer from Antonio Marshall from 25-feet out.
Again, the Eagles started the third period with a bucket from Boswell but the Patriots went on another run, scoring 13 consecutive points to take a 55-24 lead.
South Putnam managed to trim the lead to 29 on a bucket from Anderson before the Patriots responded with another 10 straight points to take a 64-26 lead, forcing a South Putnam timeout.
Owen Valley scored 29 points in the third period en route to the victory.
Masters and Anderson led the Eagles with 10 points each while Masters also added nine rebounds. Boswell also had nine points and six boards.
Maners led all scorers with 30 points to go along with five rebounds and four assists.
Despite the loss, Gardner said playing Northview, Owen Valley and Edgewood to close the season can only help his team as the postseason nears.
"These last two games make you prepare for the sectional," he said. "It will help you for the sectional.
"For us, this is an opportunity to get better for the sectional. I thought our kids played hard."
In junior varsity action, the Eagles lost, 63-45. Michael Sebanc and Dayne Nelson both had nine points to pace SPHS.
The Eagles will face Edgewood on the road Friday in the final game of the regular season.