Cougars drop Falcons, 49-41

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Hazelgrove scores 24 in North Putnam win

Bennett Hazelgrove (Banner Graphic/GRANT WIEMAN)

CAYUGA -- The North Putnam Cougars boys' basketball team traveled to Cayuga to face the North Vermillion Falcons Tuesday.

It was a back and forth battle and North Putnam took the game 49-41.

"We knew that if we could keep it close on their home court with four minutes left in the game, we felt that we could pull away," Cougar coach Lukas Haworth said.

For the first three quarters, the Cougars and Falcons traded buckets with neither team gaining much an advantage. The biggest lead was only four, held by the Cougars.

Then in the fourth quarter, North Putnam found some momentum and started to get to the free throw line. The Cougars made their foul shots and put the game away late by forcing tough shots without fouling on defense and securing the ball and drawing fouls offensively.

North Putnam outscored North Vermillion 18-9 in the fourth quarter and shot 11-for-15 from the charity stripe to ice the game.

"I did not think that at any point we were being outplayed we made some mistakes but never were they mistakes from getting outplayed or out hustled," Haworth said. "That is what we got to have, you have to be more intense than the team you are playing for 32 minutes because they are going to score buckets and things are going to happen that you do not want to.

"But if you can be the most intense team for 32 minutes you are going to give yourself a chance to win."

North Vermillion pressed Norht Putnam for most of the game but the Cougars was undaunted by it and easily broke it nearly every time, only turning the ball over once due to the press.

"We did a great job. that is the best that we have broken the press in months," Haworth said. "What's funny is we did not practice it due to the snow that came in and just talking about it I thought we did a great job."

As usual, the Cougar defense was stiff and forced 15 Falcon turnovers, most of which led to points via the free throw line or transition layups.

"They are a great shooting team and a great driving team," Haworth said. "I thought our defense did a great job of taking that away and eventually we wore them down to where they made some mistakes and we made the plays we needed to make and we got the big win on the road."

The Falcons took away North Putnam's main threat, senior Jordan Nauert who still scored eight points. That cleared the way for senior Bennett Hazelgrove, who had a spectacular game with 24 points and four rebounds to go along with two assists.

"They did a great job of taking away Jordan Nauert and Jordan did a great job of not forcing things," Haworth said. "Whenever they take away one option you have to have your two, three and four options step up and make plays and that's what happened tonight."

Hazelgrove said he was proud of the Cougars playing their brand of basketball Tuesday.

"We just went out there and played tonight, we did not have much to lose," Hazelgrove said. "We went out there and played our kind of basketball. The past couple games we were up a lot and then let them come back but this game I felt like we were with them the whole time and we were able to play our type of basketball."

Hazelgrove was 12-for-14 on the night from the line, playing a big part in putting the game away late.

"I once watched a documentary on Michael Jordan and it was said that every time he went up to shoot it he would always think 'tongue down.' It relieves stress and that is what I do," Hazelgrove said. "If you think of one thing when you shoot it, it makes it 10 times easier to make it and they were just going through the net."



At North Vermillion
North Putnam 7 13 11 18 - 49
North Vermillion 9 11 12 9 -- 41
North Putnam (49):
Hazelgrove 5-11 12-14 24, Beaman 6-6 1-2 14, Nauert 3-7 2-4 8, Hall 1-6 0-0 2, Roberts 0-3 1-3 1, Green 0-2 0-0 0. Total: 15-35 (3-9) 16-23, 49.
North Vermillion (41):
Earl 5-10 2-4 14, Wright 4-12 0-0 9, Sams 4-6 0-0 8, Woodard 4-11 0-0 8, Clark 1-1 0-0 2, Davis 0-3 0-0 0. Rebounds-offensive
NP (19-5): Roberts 6-2, Hall 4-1, Hazelgrove 4-0, Green 2-1, Nauert 2-1, Beaman 1-0.
NV (24-10): Earl 8-3, Wright 5-3, Woodard 5-2, Sams 5-1, Clark 2-1, Martin 1-0.
Turnovers: NP 8, NV 15. Fouls: NP 12, NV 16.
Assists (7): Beaman 2, Hazelgrove 2, Roberts 2, Nauert. Steals (8): Beaman 3, Roberts 3, Nauert 2.

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