Sparkplugs end Cougars' season

Friday, March 7, 2014
Cougar senior Jordan Nauert avoids Speedway's Shannon Hall for two of his 13 points Friday. (Banner Graphic/JARED JERNAGAN)

The North Putnam Cougars knew they were up for a challenge when they saw their second-round opponent in Sectional 44.

The semifinal game was the toughest test for the Cougars by far on the year and the Speedway Sparkplugs knew that they had to bring their A game.

Speedway (15-6, 4-3 HCC) got out to a fast lead in the first couple minutes. At the 5:38 mark in the first quarter Speedway opened up a 13-0 lead against the Cougars (11-11, 3-2 WCC).

It was a sign of things to come, as the Sparkplugs topped the Cougars 87-45.

"That is athleticism you see only once a year there is no way to simulate it," North Putnam coach Lukas Haworth said. "They did a great job taking advantage of everything we wanted to give them and even some stuff we did not."

Four points from Cougar senior Bennett Hazelgrove were quickly countered by a 9-2 run, and the Sparkplugs closed the quarter with a 22-6 lead.

The Cougars seemed to stop the Sparkplugs offense in the second quarter as they scored only 16 points in the frame. The Cougars trailed by 22 at the half, 38-16.

The second half was much of the same for both teams. North Putnam struggled to cope with the pressure and speed of Speedway and was outscored by 20 in the second half.

Leading for the Cougars on the night was Hazelgrove, who shot 6-for-9 on the night for a team-high 16 points. Senior Jordan Nauert was second on the team with 13 points on 6-of-15 shooting.

The Cougar leading rebounder was Nauert, who pulled down five. Hazelgrove and junior Micheal Roberts each had three. Nauert also had four assists to lead the team.

The Sparkplugs outrebounded the Cougars 36-17 and had 14 offensive rebounds, which really hurt the Cougars since the offensive boards led to 26 second-chance points.

The Cougars knew they would probably be outrebounded, since the Sparkplugs had a 6-foot-7 center, a 6-foot-4 forward and a 6-foot-4 guard, along with the fact that eight of the 11 players were over six feet tall.

The Cougars handled the height well and only allowed eight rebounds to the Sparkplugs top rebounder. The Cougars also hauled in four offensive boards of their own.

Even though North Putnam only scored 45 points, the team shot a good percentage from the floor for a high school game. The Cougars were 18-of-44 from the floor, good for a shooting percentage of 40. The Cougars were 3-of-16 from long range.

"I thought we took good shots, it was more of their pressure forcing turnovers and not getting us as many shots as we wanted. The kids did a great job of doing what I asked them to do," Haworth said.

With the game out of hand and his team still playing heard, Haworth tried to sub everyone in that was available. One big hit the Cougars took before the game was the loss of point guard Shane Beaman to an ailment.

"Anytime you lose your point guard it is going to be huge," Haworth said. "Shane has been our leader with the ball in his hands and emotionally, both on and off the floor. Unfortunately, we missed 'our man' tonight. He is the guy that got us into everything good or bad, you know you never make excuses and you still go out and play basketball.

"But, he is a huge part of what we have started here at North Putnam and it really hurt to not have him."

This was one of the best seasons the Cougars have enjoyed in recent years, leaving them no reason to hang their heds.

The finished .500 for the first tim in six years, won 11 games for the first time in 10 years and won their first sectional game in 12 years.

"I hope we set the tone for the future," Hazelgrove said. "I hope we bring back North Putnam basketball."

Speedway coach Chuck Bennett praised the job Haworth has done in his first season.

"Coach Haworth does a great job. His kids can play. We watched them three times on tape and twice in person and they just play so hard and do exactly what he asks," SHS coach Chuck Bennett said.

Haworth was very happy on the way things played out on the Cougar season.

"We did some things here that were pretty historic. If you talk about something that is 10-plus years before it happens it is pretty historic," Haworth said.

"You have to give a lot of credit to the boys. I told them that I did not make it easy on them, I was hard on them and made them do things a certain way even when they did not want too. They wanted to play as a team and they wanted to win," Haworth said. "They brought their heart everyday for the past four months and it went way beyond my expections."



At South Putnam

IHSAA Sectional 44

Speedway 22 16 22 27 - 87

North Putnam 6 10 15 14 -- 45

Speedway (87): Jones 7-15 6-9 25, Furlow 7-14 0-0 16, Burnell 4-8 3-3 11, Hall 4-5 2-2 10, Milton 3-3 1-1 7, Schall 2-2 2-4 6, Vernon 1-2 1-2 4, Fritz 1-1 1-2 3, Klotz 1-2 0-0 3, Kinnick 1-4 0-0 2, Ahrens 0-2 0-0 0. Total: 32-60 (8-20) 16-23, 87.

North Putnam (45): Hazelgrove 6-9 2-2 16, Nauert 6-15 0-0 13, Jeter 2-2 0-2 4, Riggen 2-6 0-2 4, Green 1-1 0-0 2, Hall 0-2 1-2 1, Flynn 0-3 0-0 0, Munns 0-1 0-0 0. Total: 18-44 (6-12), 45.

Rebounding (offensive)

Speedway (36-14): Furlow 8-2, Burnell 7-3, Jones 6-2, Ahrens 3-2, Schall 3-2, Hall 3-1, Milton 2-2, Klotz 2-0, Fritz 1-0, Kinnick 1-0.

North Putnam (17-4): Nauert 5-0, Hazelgrove 3-0, Roberts 3-0, Jeter 2-2, Riggen 2-2, Flynn 1-0, Hall 1-0.

Turnovers: S 9, NP 18.Fouls : S 15, NP 18.

Assists (4): Nauert 4. Steals (5): Nauert 2, Riggen 2, Jeter. Blocks (1): Nauert.

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