Western Boone tops North Putnam, 62-48

ROACHDALE -- The North Putnam Cougars boys' basketball team welcomed the visiting Western Boone Stars to Roachdale for a tough and physical Saturday night matchup. The Stars went home with the victory, 62-48.

Even in defeat, Cougar coach Lukas Haworth was happy with his team's effort.

"I am extremely happy. Western Boone is a very good team and they are on a run right now," Haworth said. "They beat Danville last week, who is ranked 10th in 3A. They beat North Mongomery last night at North Montgomery and any win in that conference is a big win. They are kinda on a tear. I was extremely proud of my team tonight."

North Putnam knew coming in it would be a very tough test, as Western Boone was a taller and more athletic team. The only thing the Cougars could hope for was to tire out Western Boone and get them in foul trouble, as they only had seven varsity players on the roster.

The Stars also had something the Cougars do not, a big man in the middle. Six-foot-five senior JT Whitaker stood three inches above the tallest Cougar and it looked like the Stars would easily be able to feed the ball inside to him and make easy buckets.

That was not the case, the Cougars got Whitaker in foul trouble and he made three trips to the bench because of it. Whitaker scored only six points and only hauled down three rebounds.

The combination of Green, junior Brandon Hall and sophomore Kyler Jeter really shut Whitaker down on the night.

"I thought we did a great job. Any time you see a tall guy like that and your tallest guys are only six-one or six-two, it makes you a little nervous, but the one thing that evens it out was hustle and effort and we absolutely had that on every play," Haworth said.

The Cougars were down by only five at the half, due in part to the shooting of senior Jordan Nauert, who went 4-for-6 behind the arc. The only misses he had were last second buzzer-beaters to end each quarter.

Nauert finished the night 5-of-9 from deep.

Cougars senior Beau Green sparked a run early in the third quarter, first assisting on a Nauert three ball to cut the lead to two. After a Stars missed shot, Green shot and missed, but junior Michael Roberts got the rebound, passed it to Green and he made the bucket as he was being fouled. Green made the free throw and gave the Cougars their first lead of the game.

"I thought Beau did a good job," Haworth said. "Brandon came in and gave us a lot of good minutes, Kyler even came in and played inside for us tonight. I thought everybody that played for us at the five spot really played physical, they went strong to the basket, they did a great job."

The Stars answered with a three of their own but Green came right back and converted on another and-one opportunity to give NPHS another lead at 32-30.

"Beau kind of inspires those other guys and that is what is great about Beau. When Brandon and Kyler go in they know they have to match Beau's intensity at both ends of the floor and it is great to have a player like that," Haworth said.

Green then made a hustle steal and forwarded the ball to senior Bennett Hazelgrove, who made the layup and was fouled again. He also made the free throw and gave the Cougars three straight three-point plays to open the half on a 12-3 run.

After senior Shane Beaman picked up his third foul and headed to the bench, all the momentum left the Cougars even though they were in the bonus as a team already. With 4:30 left in the third quarter the Stars started to distance themselves and not foul.

The Stars finished the third quarter on a 7-0 run to take the lead 42-36 and all the momentum the Cougars had.

The Cougars started to foul unintentionally in the fourth quarter and the Stars got to the line frequently and knocked down their foul shots.

All the air was let out of the gym when Beaman picked up his fifth foul and was out of the game with 4:38 left.

The Cougars tried to create quick, easy baskets but could not hit. The Stars pulled away and put the game out of reach.

Haworth continued to praise his team's energy even after the 14-point loss.

"I thought we did a lot better than last night (against Greencastle). If we played with this energy last night, I think we would have walked away with the win," Haworth said. "That is what is good about this team is they are willing to come back after a loss and say, 'OK, we are not going to let that happen again.' Even though we did lose, we stepped up our energy. We had no business getting some of the balls we got tonight with as athletic as they were so it was great to see the effort."

At North Putnam
Western Boone 17 10 15 20 -- 62
North Putnam 9 13 14 12 -- 48
Scoring
Western Boone (62): Wethington 5-7 4-6 16, Bye 3-7 7-8 14, Porter 4-7 1-3 10, Baxter 4-6 1-3 9, Burtner 2-5 3-5 7, Whitaker 3-7 0-0 6, McCloskey 0-1 0-0 0. Total: 16-25 (4-13) 16-25, 62.
North Putnam (48): Nauert 5-12 5-6 20, Green 3-7 3-3 9, Hazelgrove 2-5 4-5 8, Hall 2-5 1-1 5, Beaman 2-7 0-0 4, Roberts 0-5 2-6 2, Riggen 0-4 0-0 0, Jeter 0-1 0-0 0, Munns 0-1 0-0 0. Total: 14-47 (5-15) 15-21, 48.
Rebounds-offensive
Western Boone (21-4): Wethington 5-1, Porter 4-0, Bye 3-0, McCloskey 3-0, Baxter 2-1, Burtner 2-1, Whitaker 2-1.
North Putnam (29-11): Roberts 3-3, Nauert 5-0, Hall 2-2, Hazelgrove 2-2, Green 3-2, Jeter 2-2, Flynn 2-0, Beaman 1-0, Munns 1-0, Riggen 1-0.
Assists (8): Beaman 2, Green 2, Nauert 2, Hazelgrove, Roberts. Steals (5): Hazelgrove 2, Green, Munns, Nauert.
Turnovers WB 10 NP 9. Fouls WB 17 NP 20.