Cougars fall apart against Brown County

Sunday, January 11, 2015
Kaitlin Mindiola pump fakes, but the defense doesn't budge much. (Banner Graphic/JOHNATHON GOODE)

ROACHDALE--Second-half woes continued for the North Putnam girls' basketball team Saturday against Brown County, With the Lady Cougars losing 45-20.

North Putnam opened the game with a Taylor Nauert two-point field goal on the first possession, but that was the only time it would see the lead in the game.

Because of good defense and missed field goals and free throws the Cougars only went into halftime down six, 14-8. Brown County was 6-for-26 from the field in the half and only one-for-six from the free throw line.

The second half was the most discouraging for the Cougars, who were only down six, but the deficit grew quickly. They went 4-for-15 from the field and had a total of 36 turnovers for the game, 21 in the second half.

"I thought we got off to a good start," Cougars' coach Jim Spencer said. "We played a good first quarter and a good three-fourths of the second quarter. We had ourselves down six at halftime and a chance to keep ourselves in the game. The third quarter just got a little disappointing."

Exactly a week ago from this game the Cougars took part in the Speedway Classic and they saw the same shooting happen result happen in the second half of that game only going 2-for-23 from the field. In the second half of this game Brown County's Tanner Chapman went five-of-seven from the field in the second half, making all five of her two-point attempts. She had 18 points total.

"It was a loss of ground from where we've been in the last few weeks," Spencer said. "We just made some poor decisions. They multiply and we made mental mistakes. We weren't getting back, we missed some block-outs and the points piled up quick against us.

"We just have to do a better job of taking care of the things we can physically take care of. You can't dwell on it, though. You have to get back to practice Monday and work on the things that need to get better."

Also like the game against Speedway, turnovers and missed field goal opportunities led to transition points, which plagued the Cougars late in the game. In the fourth quarter Chapman had two straight possessions with and-ones because the Cougars could not get back. She was fouled and put on the line on the third possession. She hit three-of-four of those attempts.

"We have to get back and we have to anticipate getting back," Spencer said. "We don't have a lot of foot speed, so you have to anticipate getting back and you have to have more people get back. Sometimes we're getting one person back, but we're getting beat on two-on-ones and three-on-twos. We just got to do a better job of people anticipating the game is going the other direction."

Brown County was clear about wanting to pressure the ball handler. They quickly and aggressively had two defenders on the handler that prevented any driving and without the help of teammates there was nowhere to pass. In result the ball was turned over and the Cougars only got 29 shots off compared to the 57 by Brown County.

"We didn't get many good looks today shooting," Spencer said. "We just turned the ball over too much. We hit some shots when we got good looks at the goal, but we really struggled handling the ball. We couldn't get into an offense. Most of the shots we got came off of defensive breakdowns. It wasn't out of our offense. We just didn't do a good job getting into our offense."

Spencer said it was the quickness and aggressiveness that intimidated the Cougars.

"Their quickness hurt us," Spencer said. "We struggled with their quickness and aggressiveness on the perimeter. Some of the things they did were really good and we helped them out."

North Putnam's next game will be Jan. 15 at home against Monrovia.


At North Putnam

Brown County 6 8 17 14--45

North Putnam 4 4 5 7--20

Scoring:

Brown County: Chapman 18, Edds 8, Smith 6, Anderson 5, Pool 4, Stanford 4,Brady 0, Miller 0, Pugh 0, Weaver 0.

North Putnam: Ma. Smith 5, Evans 4, Henninger 4, Nauert 4, Mindiola 2, Millican 1, Clodfelter 0, Parent 0, B. Smith 0, Mo. Smith 0.

Rebounding

Brown County: Anderson 5, Stanford 5, Weaver 5, Brady 4, Chapman 2, Miller 2, Pugh 1, Smith 1.

North Putnam: Nauert 7, Evans 5, Mindiola 5, Ma. Smith 5, Henninger 4, Clodfelter 3, B. Smith 2, Parent 1.

Comments
View 1 comment
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
  • Great effort Cougars! Remember-it's not just about

    winning and losing.

    -- Posted by nphs98 on Mon, Jan 12, 2015, at 8:36 AM
Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: