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Cougar girls fall to NV, still find positives
CAYUGA — Jarrod Duff knows that molding his North Putnam Cougars into a successful girls’ basketball program will take time.
The Cougars opened their season at North Vermillion on Thursday, and battled the hosts tough throughout the game before falling 30-25.
North Vermillion led 18-15 after three periods despite committing a whopping 25 turnovers during that time.
North Putnam opened the final period strongly, getting baskets from Baylee Osburn and Emily Henninger to take a 19-18 lead.
North Vermillion’s Hannah Ellis scored three points to put her team back ahead by two, before Henninger tied it at 21-21 with another bucket.
The Falcons then took advantage of the foul-prone Cougar defense, scoring nine straight points — seven coming from the free throw line — to break the game open.
“We had moments where we played pretty well,” Duff said. “I thought defensively we played hard. We had some breakdowns defensively, but I think the effort was there.”
The Cougars were in foul trouble early, and that caused Duff to change some strategies.
“We couldn’t do some of the things we wanted to do because we got in foul trouble early,” he said. “We have to block out better.”
North Vermillion finished with 31 turnovers on the night, while the Cougars committed 25 of their own.
Duff knows there is a huge difference in turnovers caused by defensive pressure, and the self-destructive kind.
“Offensively, our decision-making has to be better,” Duff added. “Obviously one concern was that we had a lot of unforced travels where our footwork wasn’t very good.
“I told the girls that was on me — I thought we had worked enough on that, but obviously we haven’t. We’re obviously going to make a point of working squaring up and establishing a pivot foot.”
Duff said his team can learn a lot from Thursday’s game.
“They are disappointed in how they played,” he said. “There are a lot of positives we can take from this game, and continue to work on things that need improving.
“I wish I could have done some things differently to help them out and help them be better prepared.”
Duff knows that improvement is a process, and he expects to see his team continually get better this season.
“I told our team in the locker room that we’re not anywhere close to being the kind of team I think we can be,” he said. “We’re going to get back at it in practice and keep grinding away to get better.”
No Cougars reached double figures, but Osburn led the way with seven points and Henninger added six.
The Cougars will take the court again on Tuesday when they play at Crawfordsville.
NORTH PUTNAM (25) — Runnels 0-5 0-0 0, Duncan 0-2 3-6 3, Lyons 1-8 1-4 3, Henninger 3-6 0-9 6, Spencer 0-1 0-0 0, Parent 1-2 0-0 2, Osburn 3-3 1-2 7, Sims 1-5 0-0 2, Tennis 0-2 2-2 2, Gibson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 9-34 FG, 7-23 FT, 25 TP
NORTH VERMILLION (30) — Ellis 1-2 2-6 4, Earl 1-6 1-4 3, Vicars 0-1 0-0 0, Balding 3-6 0-5 6, Cheuvrount 4-9 7-9 15, Bush 0-3 0-0 0, Steinbrenner 1-1 0-0 2, West 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 10-25 FG, 10-24 FT, 30 TP
North Putnam 4 5 6 10 — 25
North Vermillion 3 7 8 12 — 30
3-point shooting — NP 0-6 (Runnels 0-1, Lyons 0-3, Sims 0-1, Tennis 0-1), NV 0-1 (Cheuvrount 0-1). FG Pct. — NP 26.4, NV 40.0. FT Pct. — NV 41.6, NP 29.1. Turnovers — NV 31, NP 25.
JV game — North Putnam 28 (Abby Simmerman 6, Hannah Sims 4), North Vermillion 19
Next game — North Putnam (0-1) plays at Crawfordsville on Tuesday.