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Cougars fall to Monrovia, 53-30
ROACHDALE--A full court press has given the North Putnam girls' basketball team fits all year and the Monrovia Bulldogs played according to the memo. Monrovia won 53-30.
Of the 15 first-half turnovers for the Cougars (2-13 0-1 WCC), 14 of them did not even occur across the 10-second timeline.
"We paid the price for not making the correct play," head coach Jim Spencer said. "We've had problems with this all year and tonight was no different."
When Monrovia (8-7 2-3 ICC) did not score layups off of turnovers, junior Kenna Hunter ran the offense. She only scored seven points for the game, but she had nine assists and only five turnovers.
Senior Alaina Longere came off the bench to score 10 of her 13 points in the first half. The solid five-foot-nine-inch center did it all. She scored off two offensive rebounds, she hit mid-range jumpers and she hit a three-pointer.
North Putnam started playing more aggressive in the first half and throughout the game more than they have all season. Guards, like senior Kayla Clodfelter, started dribbling through double teams and that helped get the ball over mid court.
"I was very pleased to see the aggressive play," Spencer said. "It shows we're moving forward and that's what we want."
Monrovia went up by 11 at halftime, but that was not before a 7-2 Monrovia run ended the second quarter. The Cougars had been down only by six, 20-14 before this happened. Juniors Taylor Nauert and Adri Millican led the way. Millican had four points for the Cougars and Nauert had three points and two assists.
"The scoring came in spurts," Spencer said. "It didn't seem like they were ahead by that much because they didn't score at all times, but when they did they would score six or eight points in a row."
North Putnam came out into the second half with a 7-2 run of its own. Nauert had five of her 10 total points in that run and senior Kaitlin Mindiola added the other deuce.
The run ended with 2:45 left in the third quarter when senior Bailee Keen hit a three off a Hunter pass. Keen hit five of her team's six threes and had a game high 19 points.
"We did well," Spencer said. "It was good to see our team fight back."
Third quarters have been an issue for the Cougars over the past two games against Brown County and Speedway. They stayed in both of those games and had a chance to win both, but they fell apart in the second half. They scored a combined total of 16 points over the two second halves and they scored 14 against the Bulldogs.
"It was great to see us turn things around," Spencer said. "Things were looking glim, but we played a great second half."
Late in the fourth quarter the game started falling apart for the Cougars. They gave up four straight turnovers under the Monrovia basket, which led to six points. Other than that the effort stayed at pace.
"That was the only bad part," Spencer said. "We have to make better decisions. Overall I was very pleased with the effort given.
The next Cougar's game will be January 20 at Southmont.
At North Putnam
Monrovia 12 15 8 18--53
North Putnam 4 12 7 7--30
Scoring
Monrovia (22-48 1-4 53): Keen 7-10 0-0 19, Longere 6-11 0-0 13, Hunter 3-6 1-2 7, Tharp 3-4 0-0 6, Russel 2-3 0-2 4, Speck 1-5 0-0 2, Wright 1-3 0-0 2, Bennett 0-1 0-0 0, Price 0-1 0-0 0, Wright 0-3 0-0 0.
North Putnam (12-32 3-7 30): Nauert 4-8 0-0 10, Henninger 3-4 0-1 6, Millican 1-3 3-4 5, Clodfelter 2-5 0-0 4, Mindiola 2-5 0-0 4, Ma. Smith 1-4 0-0 3, Evans 0-1 0-2 0, Mo. Smith 0-3 0-0 0.
Rebounds
Monrovia:Speck 6, Tharp 6, Whitney 3,Russell 2, Wright 2, Bennett 1, Hunter 1, Palmer 1, Price 1.
North Putnam: Henninger 7, Nauert 3, Clodfelter 2, Mindiola 2, Mo. Smith 2, Evans 1, Millican 1, Ma. Smith 1.