Lady Cougars fall to Athenians 47-24 in first game of season

Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Senior Ricki Evans goes to the baseline and tries to fin somebody in the post. (Banner Graphic/JOHNATHON GOODE)

CRAWFORDSVILLE-- The North Putnam Cougars started their IHSAA girls' basketball season Tuesday night. by losing to the Crawfordsville Athenians 47-24.

Crawfordsville (1-0) came out with a quick tempo that was too much for the Cougars by starting the game with a 7-0 run that all came off turnovers, which the Cougars had 31 for the game.

"It just takes time," Cougar coach Jim Spencer said. "We will get there. Tonight was the first game and girls are always nervous about it. They did a good job keeping their composure and we will move on to the next one."

North Putnam was unsuccessful finding the net in the first quarter and went down 10-0, but the game became brighter in the second quarter.

Senior forward Ricki Evans grinded out the post before drawing a foul off the Athenians and made one of two free throws to put the first point on the board for the Cougars. Sophomore Emilee Henninger posted the same result two possessions later.

Down 20-5 at half was an OK situation for the Cougars, who still had plenty of time to catch up. Their motto is that they want to be better each and every day.

North Putnam showed it could do that in just one half.

The Cougars had troubles scoring early on, but four buckets in six possessions to end the third quarter was a nice way to go into the fourth.

Junior Taylor Nauert had two of those to go with 14 points total and 7 rebounds.

"We did a nice job improving," Spencer said. "Our goal is to be better each and every day, each and every game and each and every quarter and every quarter we got a little bit better."

Beginning the final quarter of play, North Putnam was to receive the ball just on its side of mid-court. Henninger threw a textbook perfect pass to a wide-open Kayla Clodfelter for an easy two.

From there on Crawfordsville took over.

"We had found out some of their openings," Spencer said. "We did a good job learning how to break them down and we definitely improved on it over the game."

Turnovers are what teams try to avoid and that was the plague for the Cougars. They had one shot less than turnovers, which limits a team's chance to win on most nights.

"Turnovers are killer," Spencer said. "We just have to go into practice and try to correct our mistakes. It is all about getting better one day at a time and I think we're on the right track for that. Turnovers are going to happen. It's a part of the game, but you have to go back and try to limit those."

North Putnam showed its struggles but it also showed its ability to improve. The second half bright spots are what fans should keep in mind.

North Putnam will continue a rough part of its schedule Thursday night at Danville High School. The Cougars will use these games as preparation for the latter stages of the season.

"You can never go wrong by playing a schedule like this," Spencer said. "It gets tough, but playing good teams like this helps us expose our weaknesses and helps us correct them. It prepares us for later on in the season when we face conference and county teams."


At Crawfordsville High School

North Putnam 0 5 10 9--24

Crawfordsville 10 10 11 16--47

Scoring

North Putnam (M-ATT MFT-AFT): Nauert 5-14 4-7 14, Evans 1-2 2-4 4, Henninger 1-2 1-3, Clodfelter 1-4 0-0 2, Laffin 0-1 1-2 1, Millican 0-5 0-0 0, Smith 0-1 0-0 0.


Crawfordsville: Garrett 5-17 4-9 14, Schueren 6-13 0-0 14, Hampton 3-7 1-2 7, Brooks 2-10 0-0 6, Hall 2-4 0-0 4, Goodnight 1-3 0-0 2, Seybold 0-3 0-0 0.

Rebounding

North Putnam (OFF-TOT): Evans 2-8, Smith 5-8, Nauert 1-7, Clodfelter 0-4, Henninger 0-3, Millican 1-3, Laffin 0-1.

Crawfordsville: Hampton 6-11, Hall 4-6, Garrett 2-5, Schueren 1-4, Goodnight 2-3, Brooks 0-2, Seybold 0-1.

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