Cougar girls' team is looking to improve

Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Sophomore Cougar Emilee Henninger jumps to fight for a rebound in the air. (Banner Graphic/JOHNATHON GOODE)

ROACHDALE-- The North Putnam Cougars girls' basketball team finally made it on the board in the first quarter. This is only one of many improvements that they showed in Tuesday night's loss to the Covington Trojans, 67-33.

"We are just looking to improve," Coach Jim Spencer said. "We definitely did that tonight. We were moving the ball, we did a better job shooting the ball, we got better looks, we might have lost a little ground defensively, but it's a process."

Not only did the Cougars (0-3 0-0WCC) put points up in the first quarter, they scored their highest total all season and even won their first quarter of the season, 11-10, in the third.

Taylor Nauert put up a season-high 17 points on 8-of-16 shooting. Kayla Clodfelter also set the season mark with eight points and senior Kaitlin Mindiola debuted her season with six points.

"I thought Taylor did a good job staying aggressive inside," Spencer said. "She did a good job using her moves we've worked on in practice and working hard. They all did a good job tonight. They just tried to stay with what we're doing. They didn't take any bad shots tonight, we cut our turnovers down and we put more points up on the board. We just got to get a little bit better in all phases of the game."

North Putnam committed a season-low seven turnovers in the third quarter, which they won, when they are averaging well over 30 for the whole game.

Tuesday's down low came from Covington's (2-0 0-0 Wabash River) senior guard Avery Chezem. She had 23 first half points and added 10 more in the second. She hit four of her six threes in the first half, part of her unstoppable pose.

"We did a better on her during the second half," Spencer said. "Although, she did a better job finding other people. We had some let downs. You have to give her a ton of credit. She's a really good ball player and she exploited us in many different ways."

North Putnam scored a respectable 16 first half points, their most of the season, and would have held the lead, but Chezem's 23 opened up the game.

Trojan's center Macie Cooper added 12 behind Chezem as the other threat of the Cougars.

North Putnam has increasingly showed their willingness to improve and even though they have a long way to go, it is not out of the reach that they could be a Cinderalla in sectionals.

"We're making amazing strides as a group in practice," Spencer said. "I'm really proud and pleased with their effort and how hard they're practicing and their willingness to listen. It's just a long process and we're trying to get better.

The Cougars get another dominant test Friday night in the opening round of the Putnam County tournament against Greencastle. The game starts at 6:30 and Coach Spencer hopes his team will improve some more before then.

"You hope tonight builds some confidence," Spencer said. "We hope that we can run our stuff and make good passes and get some good looks, but tonight we did a little better and you hope you keep moving in that direction. County is always a rivalry. We are going to work and try our best. That is all we can do."


At North Putnam

Covington 20 18 10 19--67

North Putnam 8 8 11 6--33

Scoring

Covington: Chezem 33, Cooper 12, Kagels 10, Foster 6, Bodine 4, Marble 2.

North Putnam: Nauert 17, Clodfelter 8, Mindiola 6, Millican 2, Henninger 0, Smith 0.

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