Tiger Cubs rout Cougars, 70-26

Saturday, January 26, 2008

The North Putnam Cougars boys' basketball team traveled to Greencastle Friday night, hoping to hand the Tiger Cubs their first West Central Conference loss of the season.

However, the Tiger Cubs raced out to a 23-2 lead in the opening quarter, and were able to sustain their dominance, defeating the Cougars, 70-26.

Greencastle led 37-12 at halftime, and 46-13 at the end of the third quarter.

The Tiger Cubs used a balanced offense, with 11 players getting into the scorebook, and a stingy defense that forced the Cougars to commit 17 turnovers, and hit 22 percent from the field.

"I was pleased with way our kids came in and played tonight," commented Greencastle coach Troy Greenlee after the game.

"It was big that our kids came out and hits some shots early in the game. We came into the game tonight knowing that if we played well, we should win the game, but if you don't start strong, you don't know how the outcome will be." he continued.

"We got off to a very big start, and that was the big difference for us tonight, and our second group of kids came in and played well, also."

"We have to keep this win in perspective. This was a big win for us tonight, and it has put us in a position win a WCC Championship next Friday night against Monrovia," added Greenlee.

"They played a great game tonight," commented North Putnam coach Wes Peek after the game.

"We seemed to be very intimidated by their pressure early in the game tonight. They were able to spread us out, and take advantage of our mistakes.

"That didn't seem to wear off until late in the second quarter, when Kyle Alcorn got aggressive for us. I thought in the first half, they were, by far, the more aggressive team, and in the second half we were more aggressive.

"However, I thought we did a fantastic job of defending Brennan Burks tonight and if there was a positive to pull out of this game, that was it," added Peek.

Greencastle had two players scoring double figures, Kendall Faust with 14, and Jordan Harlan with 11.

Justin Bartrum followed with eight, Jordan Hickam and Griffin Moore each had seven, Ashton Marshall and Brennan Burks scored six each, Austin Miller added four, Graham Shuee had three, and Damir Tarabar and Kyle Nobles closed out the Tiger Cub scoring with two points each.

Burks led the Tiger Cubs in rebounds with game-high seven boards, three blocked shots, and three steals. Bartrum and Harlan had a game-high three assists each.

Griffen Dahlstrom led North Putnam in scoring with six, Kyle Alcorn and Jerrett Ban had five points each, Kyle Adams added four, Mitch Hadley had three, James Hedrick scored two, and Brock Jones closed out the Cougar scoring with one point.

Ban led the Cougars in rebounds with a game-high nine boards, and Alcorn and Dahlstrom followed with four each.

Dahlstrom also had two blocked shots.

The Tiger Cubs (9-5, 4-0 WCC) travel to Tri-West Saturday night (tonight) to play the Bruins. The junior varsity game begins at 6:00.

The Cougars (1-11, 0-4 WCC) travel to Speedway Tuesday night to play the Sparkplugs in the second game of a WCC girls/boys double header. The girls' game starts at 6:00.

At Greencastle

North Putnam 2 10 1 13 -- 26

Greencastle 23 14 9 24 -- 70

Greencastle (9-5, 4-0 WCC) -- Bartrum 3-5 2-3 8, Marshall 2-6 0-2 6, Faust 4-11 4-4 14, Harlan 4-4 2-2 11, Hickam 3-4 1-2 7, Tarabar 1-4 0-0 2, Miller 2-3 0-0 4, Huber 0-4 0-0 0, Moore 3-3 0-0 7, Burks 2-6 2-2 6, Nobles 1-4 0-0 2, Shuee 1-1 0-2 3. Totals 26-55 FG, 11-17 FT, 70 TP.

North Putnam (1-11, 0-4 WCC) -- Alcorn 1-4 3-3 5, Ban 2-5 1-4 5, Jones 0-2 1-2 1, Francies 0-9 0-0 0, Dahlstrom 2-5 2-5 6, Hadley 0-3 3-4 3, Adams 1-3 2-4 4, Lasiter 0-0 0-0 0, Heron 0-0 0-0 0, Hedrick 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 7-32 FG, 12-22 FT, 26 TP.

3-pt. FG - G 7-16 (Bartrum 0-2, Marshall 2-2, Faust 2-6, Harlan 1-1, Miller 0-1, Huber 0-2, Moore 1-1, Shuee 1-1), NP 0-11 (Alcorn 0-1, Ban 0-1, Jones 0-2, Francies 0-5, Dahlstrom 0-1, Hadley 0-1). Rebounds - G 34 (Bartrum 2, Marshall 4, Faust 3, Harlan 1, Hickam 3, Tarabar 4, Miller 2, Huber 2, Moore 3, Burks 7, Nobles 3), NP 19 (Alcorn 4, Ban 6, Dahlstrom 4, Hadley 2, Adams 2, Heron 1). Blocks -- G 3 (Burks 3), NP 3 (Ban 1, Dahlstrom 2). Assists -- G 14 (Bartrum 3, Marshall 2, Faust 3, Harlan 1, Hickam 2, Tarabar 2, Moore 1), NP 1 (Hadley 1). Steals -- G 11 (Bartrum 2, Marshall 1, Faust 2, Harlan 1, Huber 1, Burks 3, Nobles 1), NP 4 (Alcorn 2, Jones 1, Hadley 1). Total fouls -- G 20, NP 18. Fouled out -- none. Turnovers - G 10, NP 17.

Next game -- The Tiger Cubs (9-5, 4-0 WCC) travel to Tri-West at 7:30 p.m. today. The Cougars (1-11, 0-4 WCC) travel to Speedway at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

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