Arrows use long-range shooting to sweep Eagles

Friday, January 6, 2017
The Eagles’ Lillie Stein goes up for two against Sullivan Friday night at South Putnam High School.
Banner Graphic/JOEY BENNETT

Sullivan’s Golden Arrows brought their 3-point shooting guns to South Putnam on Friday night, and combined to hit 13 shots from long range in sweeping the Eagles in Western Indiana Conference basketball action.

Freshman Reagan Holeman hit five treys in the first half alone to help her team to a 29-25 lead, and the Golden Arrows hung on for a 52-46 win.

Senior Evan Conner hit four treys for the Golden Arrows in the boys’ game, including two in the first quarter, as Sullivan never trailed in recording a 55-32 win.

In the girls’ game, Holeman hit a pair of treys in the first quarter as the Golden Arrows took a 12-7 lead at the first stop.

Lillie Stein, who would lead the Eagles with 20 points on the night, had a pair of baskets to help keep her team close.

Holeman nailed three treys and a 2-pointer in the second quarter for an 11-point outburst, but Stein matched her with a trey and four 2-pointers to pull South Putnam within four at halftime.

The third period was played to a 9-9 draw, with Caitlin Capps hitting a pair of baskets and Stein adding another midway through the period to give South Putnam its only lead of the night at 34-33 with 4:07 left in the quarter.

Sullivan got a basket from Courtney Craig and a basket plus a free throw from Ashely Durall to regain the lead at 38-34 going into the final period.

The Arrows got a basket from Holeman and a trey from Lindsey Hatch, sandwiched around a basket by South Putnam’s Lexi Vanihel, to go up 43-36 with 5:28 left.

The Eagles then went on a 7-0 run to tie the game, with Capps hitting a trey and a 2-pointer sandwiched around an Aubrey Barker basket to make it 4-43 with 2:51 left.

The Arrows closed things out at the free throw line, hitting 8 of 12 in the final 1:15 while South Putnam could manage just three points in the final 2:51. Holeman did a majority of the damage, hitting six of the eight free throws — including the last five,

Durall added 11 to support Holeman’s big night. Capps had 10 in support of Stein, but no other Eagle had more than six points.

“We have had one player here, or two players there, to have a good night, and this game was no different,” South Putnam coach Brian Gardner said. “We got some really good looks at some points in time, but then you don’t put it off the backboard and it doesn’t go in. We need to get more people to have their best game on the same night.”

Gardner gave his team credit for fighting back in the second half to stay in the game.

“Lillie had a good game, and Miranda [Bieghler] also played well,” he said “They played a box-and-one against her and that cut her numbers down, but she put us in good positions to score. Our girls kept battling and worked hard to keep us in the game.”

Gardner credited Holeman’s long distance shooting early in the game for putting his team in a hole.

“She hit several long shots early, and they hurt us,” he said. “When she hit those threes, it puts a little different pressure on you and as you’re trying to get through things you have to climb that mountain again. Every time we tried to climb back over the mountain, it seemed like we ran out of air.”

A free throw by Capps with 28.8 seconds left cut the Sullivan lead to 47-44, and the Eagles got the ball back after a Sullivan missed shot.

“We had the ball down three with a chance to tie,” Gardner said. “I think we either made a turnover or missed an easy shot, I can’t remember exactly, but we were right there. Sullivan has to get a lot of credit; their record is not great, but they have been in a lot of games with good teams.

“They just made more plays than we did.”

In the boys’ game, the Eagles had not played since Dec. 16 and the rust showed as the home team hit only 9 of 37 shots from the field.

Neither team scored in the first 2:45, but Sullivan got a 3-pointer from Trey Powell to finally open the scoring. Evan Conner added a pair of treys later in the quarter as Sullivan jumped out to a 16-7 lead at the first stop.

Allen Plunkett had five of South Putnam’s seven first-quarter points.

Plunkett added seven more points in the second quarter, but the Golden Arrows warmed up to hit 6 of 11 shots and five free throws to take a 34-17 halftime lead.

The third period started especially slowly for the Eagles, who did not get their first point until 1:15 left in the period.

Sullivan, meanwhile, ran off 11 straight points to begin the second half with two baskets from Powell, one from Mason Dean, one from Ty Drake and a trey from Conner to take a 45-17 advantage.

Sullivan led 47-21 after three periods, and added treys from Conner and Wyatt Gettinger to coast to the easy victory.

Conner led a balanced attack with 12 points, while Powell and Drake had 11 each. Dean added nine points and 10 rebounds, including three free throws with a new one-handed shooting form.

Plunkett’s 12 led South Putnam, although the 6-4 sophomore was shut out in the second half.

Thomas Fanning added eight points and Wes Lesko had six for the Eagles.

Girls’ game

SULLIVAN (52) — Holeman 7 6-8 25, Brown 1 0-0 2, Hatch 2 2-2 7, Povlin 1 0-0 2, Akers 1 1-4 3, Ravellette 0 0-0 0, Ming 0 0-0 0, Craig 1 0-0 2. Totals 18 FT, 10-19 FT, 52 Tp

SOUTH PUTNAM (46) — Boswell 0 0-0 0, Nichols 0 0-0 0, Bieghler 1 2-2 4, Vanihel 2 1-2 6, Barker 2 0-0 4, Vensko 1 0-0 2, Capps 4 1-2 10, Stein 9 1-2 20. Totals 19 FG, 5-8 FT, 46 TP

Sullivan 12 17 9 14 — 52

South Putnam 7 18 9 12 — 46

3-point goals — Vanihel, Capps, Stein, Holeman 5, Hatch.

Next game — South Putnam (10-6) plays at Riverton Parke on Tuesday. Sullivan improved to 6-11.

Boys’ game

SULLIVAN (55) — Drake 4-9 2-2 11, Powell 5-8 0-2 11, Conner 4-6 0-0 12, Garner 1-4 0-0 2, Chastain 3-4 1-1 7, Dean 3-3 3-5 9, Pirtle 0-3 0-0 0, Gettinger 1-2 0-0 3, Kinnett 0-1 0-0 0, Shake 0-1 0-0 0, Mozzoni 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 21-43 FG, 6-10 FT, 55 TP

SOUTH PUTNAM (32) — Plunkett 4-8 0-0 12, Fanning 1-4 6-7 8, Scott 1-11 0-0 2, Watson 0-1 0-0 0, Zeffel 1-2 0-0 2, Arnold 0-4 0-0 0, Lesko 1-2 4-6 6, Schnepp 1-4 0-0 2, Van Sickle 0-0 0-0 0, Adams 0-0 0-0 0, Gregory 0-0 0-0 0, Heavin 0-0 0-2 0. Totals 89-37 FG, 11-18 FT, 32 TP

Sullivan 16 18 13 8 — 55

South Putnam 7 10 4 11 — 32

3-point shooting — Sullivan 7-18 (Drake 1-4, Conner 4-6, Powell 1-3, Garner 0-1, Gettinger 1-2), South Putnam 3-10 (Plunkett 3-5, Fanning 0-1, Scott 0 -2, Arnold 0-1).

Next game — South Putnam (3-6) plays at Edgewood tonight.

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