Early lead for Eagle boys doesn't pan out

WEST TERRE HAUTE -- The South Putnam Eagles traveled to West Vigo for a non conference, rare afternoon boy's basketball match-up Saturday. Despite a strong first half of play the Eagles lost 62-47.

The opening eight minutes of play was one of the best first quarters for the Eagles. They jumped out to a 7-0 lead. Trevor Long had four and Jacob Shorer added a three to get the early lead.

The Eagles held the hosts from scoring until they got a three from Tyler Wilson at the 4:32 mark. The Eagles were up 11-8 when Corey Vickers hit a long three. Long added a basket from 10 feet to put his squad up 13-8. The Vikings finished on a 7-0 run to end the quarter up 15-13.

"After Friday night's game I wasn't sure how we'd come out," Eagle coach Greg Dean said. "Especially with this afternoon game. But we came ready to play and I was very pleased with our start. We had the lead and played better than we had in a while. Our first quarter play has been good all year, but this was a huge step forward."

The second quarter was the Eagles' lowest scoring of the day. The Vikings took the quarter 13-8, going into the half up 28-21. Jordan Parks added five of the eight points.

"Even though we were down at the half I still thought we played hard in the half. We were in the game and I felt if we came back hard in the second half we'd be in the game," Dean said.

The Eagles came back and played hard to begin the second half. Schroer added two threes and Chad Menke added a rebound basket to pull within three at the 4:02 mark, 33-30. The Vikings closed the quarter with a 12-0 run to go into the final eight minutes up 49-33.

"That spurt there at the end of the third really killed us. It's been our problem all year long. We have got to learn how to put four good quarters together if we're going to be successful come tourney time. Friday night's game was a big rivalry game for us and we did not respond well at all. Today I felt we came ready to play, we just did it for two and a half quarters.

"Overall I'm seeing improvement and that's something we can build on. I can't be disappointed with our effort we played hard, we just didn't take care of the ball when we need to," Dean said.

At West Vigo

South Putnam 13 8 12 14--47

West Vigo 15 13 21 18--62

Team Stats:

SO Put West Vigo

FG: 19/36 53% 24/54 44%

3FG: 6-14 43% 8/15 53%

FT 6/11 55% 11/14 79%

Fouls 13. 13

Rebounds 21 18

Assists: 8 13

Turnovers: 20 8

South Putnam: Parks 1-2 5, Long 9-13 4-5 21, Schorer 4-9 1-2 12, Carmichael 1-3 1-2 3, Menke 3-4 0-2 6.

West Vigo: Cardinal 2-4 6-6 13, Wilson 4-10 2-2 12, Lautenschlager 1-3 2, Kernstein 0-4 1-2 1, Sappenfield 6-13 12, Vickers 6-10 14, Cornflos 3-5 2-3 8, Paige 0-1 0,