Cloverdale wins County consolation contest

Monday, December 6, 2010
Cloverdale's Josh Burdette buried two three-point field goals and scored 12 in the Clovers' 56-24 win.

GREENCASTLE --The Cloverdale boys' basketball team handed South Putnam a 56-24 loss to win the consolation game of the Putnam County Classic on Saturday at Greencastle High.

Coach Pat Rady's Clovers (2-2) did everything well. They shot a solid 43.5 percent (17-of-39) from the field, 55.5 percent (5-of-9) on 3-pointers, and 85.5 percent (17-of-20) at the free throw. The out-rebounded the Eagles 35-25 and committed only eight turnovers.

Cloverdale had three players score in double figures, Josh Burdette and Chris Arnold with 12 each and Jordan Hayden with 10. Center Mitch Williams added nine points and had five rebounds.

The Clovers were strong defensively, too. They shut out the Eagles (0-4) in the first quarter, taking a 16-0 lead.

"I thought it was probably our best game this year," Rady said. "We had good balance at both ends and were pretty consistent. We didn't have too many lulls. I thought it was a good defensive effort. We worked at it. We challenged our kids to set the tone at the defensive end.

"Our inside-out (offense) play helped us. We had had guys play and eight guys played well."

South Putnam's biggest problem was field goal accuracy. The Eagles were 8-of-47 (17 percent) from the field, 2-of-9 on 3-pointers. They were 6-of-7 at the foul line and committed only eight turnovers.

"We got what I thought were pretty good looks," South Putnam coach Micah Elliott said. "We just missed it, didn't put the ball in the hole. We didn't turn the ball over, we just didn't shoot well. Shooters are made in the summer and we didn't do enough shooting last summer. We're really going to have to spend time shooting the ball in practice to get better and it's going to be a challenge to do that."

Cloverdale opened the game with back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers, two by Burdette and the third by Jordan Hayden.

Williams, a 6-foot-9 junior and the post-up in the inside-outside scheme, followed with a basket, Burdette scored his eighth point on the first period and Williams made a conventional three-point play to close out the 16-0 first quarter.

Rob Gibson scored the Eagles' initial points on a 10-foot jumper in the lane two minutes into the second quarter.

Cloverdale put the next six on the board on a three-point play by Williams, a basket by Franky Skiles and a free throw by Williams for a 22-2 lead.

The Clovers led 46-11 at the end of three quarters.

Cloverdale's next game is Friday at Greencastle in their West Central Conference opener. South Putnam plays the same night at Cascade, also its WCC opener.

At Greencastle

Putnam County Classic

Cloverdale 16 8 22 10 -- 56

South Putnam 0 6 5 13 -- 24

CLOVERDALE

Burdette 5-8 0-0 12, Fidler 3-5 0-0 6, Williams 3-9 3-5 9, Strunk 0-3 3-4 3, Hayden 2-3 5-5 10, Scisney 0-1 0-0 0, Arnold 3-7 4-4 12, Skiles 1-3 2-2 4, Totals 17-39 17-20 56.

SOUTH PUTNAM

Varvel 1-11 3-4 5, Arnold 1-5 0-0 2, Freeman 1-9 2-2 5, Gibson 1-9 0-0 2, Bumgardner 1-2 0-0 2, Hammond 2-8 0-0 5, Stanton 1-1 1-1 3, Hewitt 0-2 0-0 0, Totals 8-47 6-7 24.

3-point field goals: C 5-9 (Burdette 2-2, Arnold 2-5, Hayden 1-1, Fidler 0-1), SP 2-9 (Freeman 1-3, Hammond 1-3, Varvel 0-1, Gibson 0-2). Rebounds: C 35 (Strunk 6, Williams 5, Fidler 4), SP 25 (Varvel 4, Arnold 4). Turnovers: C 8, SP 8. Personal fouls: C 17, SP 17. Fouled out: None.