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Tiger Cubs grind out win over Cougars
The Greencastle Tiger Cubs hosted the rival North Putnam Cougars for a Friday night showdown. The game did not disappoint and the hosts were victorious, 44-37.
It was the kind of low-scoring affair that North Putnam has thrived in this season, but the offense never quite got on track for the Cougars.
"Our goal is always going to be to keep teams under 50 points. I thought we did a great job of that," North Putnam coach Lukas Haworth said. "You have to give them credit for taking advantage of what they got, for as good as our defense was tonight you just cannot score 37 points at this level and win many ball games."
On the other side, the Tiger Cubs took what the Cougars gave them and made the most of their opportunities.
"With being the type of game it was I thought our kids did a great job of playing possession by possession," Greencastle coach Troy Greenlee said. "I thought we took care of the ball pretty well and got off good shots. Our kids battled and made enough plays on both ends of the floor to win the game for us."
Greencastle (6-4, 3-1 WCC) and North Putnam (6-5, 2-2 WCC) started out slow in the first half until Greencastle senior Holden King heated up. King hit three three-pointers in the first half on 3-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc for nine points.
"(King) was huge because they started out in a zone and zones are something you need to make shots against and we were not able to get the ball inside as we liked and when he makes those shots that allows us to open up things a little inside. His shot making was very big tonight in both halves. We probably would not have won if he had not made those shots for us," Greenlee said.
NPHS was led in the first half by senior Shane Beaman with seven points on 2-for-4 shooting along with being 3-for-3 from the free throw line.
The Cougars were only able to get within two points in the second half since the Tiger Cubs kept knocking down tough shots. The Cougars only made seven shots in the second half due to the Tiger Cubs tight defense.
"The shots were good shots. I told the team that those are shots that I want them to take again. They were going to the basket and had wide open shots outside. They were shots we are used to hitting but we just did not tonight," Haworth said.
"I thought we did a nice job when we allowed them to get by us and make shots. In the fourth quarter I thought we locked down and did not allow them to make shots. In the first half and the fourth quarter, I thought defensively we were as good as we could be," Greenlee said.
The Cougars found buckets hard to come by and were pressured by the Tiger Cubs almost the whole game with a full-court press. Most of the time the Cougars easily broke the press only turning the ball over six times due to the press.
"I thought we did a very good job with it," Haworth said of the press. "Sometimes they are going to get a steal here and there and as long as your kids looking in the right sport when it happens, you should be fine. There was never a time when the press gave them a run and never a time where there were enough mistakes it cost us the game. We did a great job of reversing the basketball."
Greenlee thought the press was a factor simply in the energy the Cougars expended in getting the ball up the floor.
"I thought we wore them down a little. I thought it was a big factor in the game. It made them work harder to get the ball up the floor," Greenlee said.
GHS was hindered most of the game by North Putnam's zone defense, which at times was unbreakable and GHS had to take outside shots. Greencastle was 6-14 from behind the arc on the night.
"I thought our defense played phenomenal," Haworth said. "There are always going to be possessions where things break down and do not go right. We were slow on help side a couple times and we let some kids get off open threes early on."
During the second half the Cougars figured out that they needed to drive and create contact to get to the foul line or get easy layups and they did just that getting to the charity stripe 17 times.
"We were getting good looks, we were getting to the basket, we were getting to the free throw line and that was a huge positive we can take out of this game. We just need to get better at finishing on the shots that we took," Haworth said.
The Tiger Cubs finally pulled away and put the game out of reach late from the freet hrow line.
Both teams had to be proud of their effort and hustle in a defensive-minded game like this and both coaches hope that this will lead to cleaner play come sectional time.
"One thing we needed to improve on after last week was our ballhandling and I thought we did a much better job of that," Haworth said. "We still had a couple more turnovers than I wanted too but I thought we put ourselves in a position to win because of our ballhandling."
"We gave great effort on both ends. It was not a pretty game at times but it was a game with a possession here and a possession there could be the difference in the game and our kids under that pressure made some tough plays. I was really proud of them tonight," Greenlee said.
The Cougars host Western Boone at 7:30 p.m. today, while Greencastle visits Tri-West at 7:30 p.m. today.
At Greencastle
North Putnam 7 7 13 10 -- 37
Greencastle 11 7 12 14 -- 44
North Putnam (37): Beaman 2-8 6-10 11, Nauert 4-7 1-2 10, Green 2-4 4-5 8, Hazelgrove 3-9 0-0 6, Roberts 1-4 0-0 2, Judy 0-2 0-0. Total: 12-34 (2-9) 11-17, 37.
Greencastle (44): King 5-8 0-1 14, Bollman 4-13 5-8 13, Mitchell 4-8 0-0 9, Foxx 3-7 0-0 7, Newgent 0-1 1-2 1, Gerard 0-5 0-0, Winslow 0-1 0-0 0.Total: 10-30 (6-14) 6-11, 44.
Rebounds-offensive: NP (21-3): Green 6-1, Roberts 5-1, Nauert 5-0, Beaman 2-1, Hazelgrove 2-0, Hall 1-0. GC (20-5): Bollman 9-2, Gerard 3-2, King 3-0, Hughes 2-1, Mitchell 1-0, Newgent 1-0, Winslow 1-0. Turnovers: NP 10 GC 5. Fouls: NP 15, GC 16.