Cloverdale girls top North Putnam, 56-33

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

CLOVERDALE — Tori Combs had 21 points and 10 rebounds on Tuesday night as Cloverdale defeated North Putnam 57-33 in girls’ high school basketball action.

The margin of victory was much closer than in the consolation game of the county tournament earlier this month, which Cloverdale won 55-19.

The narrowing of the gap was not lost on Cloverdale coach Matthew Langdon.

“You have to give coach [Jarrod] Duff a lot of credit,” Langdon said. “North Putnam is really improving and they have gotten a lot better since the last time we played.”

Combs was the only Clover in double figures, but got support from Abby Walker and Sammie Shrum with eight points each and Kelsey Helterbrand and Hailey Thomas with seven each.

Thomas added three steals and four assists, while Lauren Meek had three steals and Shrum contributed four rebounds, three steals and two assists.

North Putnam had balanced scoring with 10 different players tallying points, led by Aleah Duncan with six.

Langdon has made some changes to his team in order to help the Clovers to continue improving.

“We’ve been adding more things to our defense, with more man-to-man,” he said. “There were times in this game when we got exposed, but in the long run it’s going to be better for us so we can do the kinds of things we want to do in the state tournament.”

Langdon noted that his team came out strongly, taking a 22-2 lead, but continued a distressing trend afterwards.

“We haven’t hit double digits in the second quarter for the past several games, and we’re going to take a look at that,” he said. “The girls are excited about where the team is going, but they have a clear understanding there are many things that we need to improve on.”

NORTH PUTNAM (33) — Duncan 2 0-0 6, Sims 1 1-5 3, Runnels 1 0-0 2, Young 1 0-2 2, Osburn 1 3-4 5, Lyons 1 0-0 2, Day 0 2-2 2, Gibson 1 2-2 4, Parent 0 0-0 0, Henninger 2 0-4 4, Tennis 1 0-2 3, Sawyer 0 0-0 0, Spencer 0 0-0 0. Totals 11 FG, 8-21 FT, 33 TP

CLOVERDALE (56) — McCracken 0 0-0 0, Helterbrand 3 1-3 7 Shrum 3 1-2 8, Price 1 0-0 2, Simpson 0 0-0 0, Walker 3 0-0 8, Meek 1 1-2 3, Combs 8 5-10 21, Thomas 2 1-2 7, Shoemaker 0 0-0 0. Totals 21 FG, 9-19 FT, 56 TP

North Putnam 4 11 10 8 — 33

Cloverdale 23 9 18 6 — 56

3-point goals — Duncan 2, Tennis, Shrum, Walker 2, Thomas 2.

Next game — Cloverdale (5-2) hosts Edgewood in a Western Indiana Conference game, while North Putnam (0-8) hosts South Putnam.

• Tri-West 55, Greencastle 37 — At Lizton, the Bruins led 26-20 at halftime before breaking it open with a 22-10 advantage in the third period.

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