North Putnam falls at home to Falcons

Wednesday, December 18, 2013
North Putnam junior Kaitlin Mindiola pulls up for a shot during a game earlier this season. (Banner Graphic/GRANT WIEMAN)

ROACHDALE -- The North Putnam girls' basketball team welcomed the North Vermillion Falcons to its home court on Tuesday night. The Falcons hot-shooting third quarter led them to victory, 45-31.

North Putnam (1-8) started out strong in the first quarter on defense holding North Vermillion (5-4) to seven points in the frame.

The Cougars shot just 23 percent in the first quarter but at the end held the lead 8-7. But, after shooting 14 percent in the second quarter North Putnam fell behind at the half, 20-12.

"In the first half I thought we played pretty well," NPHS head coach Curtis Lawrence said. "North Vermillion got on a little run in the second quarter that stretched the lead out but we were still in the ballgame at halftime."

For the night in total NPHS shot 30 percent from the floor in the game but its biggest issue was rebounding.

"(The Falcons) got too many second, third and fourth opportunities," Lawrence said. "I told the girls that rebounding is an attitude. You have got to want the ball. It does not matter how strong or big you are, it's who wants the ball more."

NPHS shot 50 percent in the third quarter, scoring 12 points and in the fourth shot 37 percent putting seven points on the board for a total of 19 in the second half.

"(The) shot selection is fine. I do not think we took one bad shot. It's just a matter of getting them to fall down for us," Lawrence said.

North Putnam was outrebounded by 14 and gave up 18 offensive rebounds to the Falcons.

"We need to work on blocking out. Just being aggressive and going after the ball. Also getting bodies on people and that is something we did not do very well tonight," Lawrence said.

North Putnam plays at Cascade on Friday at 6 p.m. in its West Central Conference opener.



At North Putnam
North Vermillion......7 13 14 11 -- 45
North Putnam..........8 4 12 7 -- 31

Scoring
NV (45): Grubbs 14, Bowman 11, Lewis 11, Grube 6,Vicars 1. Total 11-35 (5-13) 8-17 45.

NP (31): Asbell 2-11 3-6 7, Nauert 2-11 3-4 7, Wiatt 2-4 1-2 5, Land 1-3 0-0 3, Mindiola 1-3 1-2 3, Clodfelter 1-1 0-0 2, Evans 1-2 0-1 2, Millican 1-2 0-1 2. Total 11-37 (1-6) 8-15 31.

Rebounds-offensive: NP 25-8, Nauert 8-5, Asbell 5-1, Mindiola 4-2, Evans 3-0, Wiatt 2-0, Clodfelter 1-0, Millican 1-0, Smith 1-0 NV: 38-20.

Turnovers: NV 21, NP 26.

Steals: Asbell 3, Nauert, Wiatt. Assists: Wiatt 2, Asbell, Land, Mindiola, Nauert.

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