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Regional loss does not tarnish great Eagle season
SPEEDWAY — Last week, shots fell frequently for the South Putnam girls’ basketball team and the Eagles won three straight games to capture the Cascade Sectional title.
On Saturday, however, the shots did not fall often enough and the Eagles suffered a season-ending 54-42 defeat to Eastern Hancock in the Speedway Regional semifinals.
Eastern Hancock lost 52-44 to Covenant Christian in Saturday night’s championship game.
South Putnam hit 3 of 11 shots in the first quarter, but was able to stay close at 11-8 entering the second period.
Despite the Eagles missing their first nine shots of the second quarter, however, they trailed just 25-17 at the half.
“Shooting was the biggest difference for us in this game,” South Putnam coach Brian Gardner said. “We got some good looks, but they just didn’t go down. There was a stretch where I thought we settled for some threes, but those are shots that we have hit a lot this year.”
Gardner said his team went six straight scoreless possessions by missing from 3-point range.
“When we did get to the rim, we got some good things there,” he said. “A lot of times they didn’t go down for us or we didn’t get the foul.”
Lexi Vanihel and Caitlin Capps hit 3-pointers in the first quarter to help keep their team close.
Eastern Hancock opened the second quarter on a 9-4 run for a 20-12 lead.
The Eagles did not get their first basket until Vanihel hit another trey with 58 seconds left in the half and followed with an other basket to cut the gap to three.
Haley Best hit a 3-pointer with 17 seconds left in the first half, and Emiley Carlton made a steal and converted a layup to push the Royals back to an eight-point lead .
The Eagles played tough enough defense to stay in the game despite their shooting woes, and still managed to trail by only eight points at 32-24 entering the final period.
A different evil emerged in the third quarter, as eight South Putnam turnovers limited the Eagles to just seven shot attempts in the period.
The Royals sandwiched baskets by Jenna Smith and Kaysi Gilbert around a free throw by South Putnam’s Miranda Bieghler to open the fourth period and take a 36-25 lead.
The Eagles never quit, cutting the gap to 36-32 with 5:20 left as Lillie Stein hit a basket and a 3-pointer and Bieghler added two free throws to bring South Putnam within 36-32.
Then, of all the play sequences in the game, came easily the most fatal for the Eagles.
Eastern Hancock’s Gilbert was fouled with 4:06 left and hit the first of two free throws.
Best, the smallest player on the court at 5-foot-2, grabbed the rebound and nailed a 3-pointer a few seconds to give her team an eight-point cushion.
“Every time we seemed to make a run, they hit a bucket,” he said. “We could never sustain a run when we scored. They managed to put themselves in a position to do that. Down the stretch, we had to do some things to get some different action and they took advantage of it.”
The Eagles kept chipping away but could never get closer than eight points the rest of the way.
“Our girls played their butts off and played great defensively,” Gardner said. “Eastern Hancock is a team that has been scoring 60 and 70 points a lot this year, and we held them to 54.”
Stein had seven of her 10 points in the fourth quarter, while Bieghler matched that total in the final period.
Gardner thought his team played hard and represented itself well.
“I couldn’t be prouder of our girls,” he said. “It was a great year for us. Going into the sectional, nobody gave us a chance to win a sectional and we did. “
Gardner thinks the regional experience will benefit his team, which loses only senior center Jess Vensko to graduation, in future years.
“For our girls the opportunity to be able to come up here and play in this environment is invaluable to us,” he said. “For Jess Vensko, being her last year to be able to play, nobody can ever take that sectional title and cutting down those nets away from her.”
Bieghler led South Putnam with 13 points, while Stein had 10, Capps had nine and Vanihel had eight. Carlton paced the Royals with 16 and Best had 10.
The Eagles finished the season at 15-11 after winning the fourth girls’ sectional title in school history.
They return their entire starting regional lineup of juniors Stein and Bieghler, sophomores Capps and Aubrey Barker and freshman Vanihel.
Other returners from the tournament roster are junior Ally Nichols, sophomore Whitney Boswell and freshmen Alex Bratcher and Aubrey Hill.
Gardner is also hopeful that junior Maddie McHugh can make a full recovery from a knee injury suffered during the season.
“For the girls coming back for next year, this gives them a little fuel for next year,” he said.
EASTERN HANCOCK (54) — Carlton 5-9 6-7 16, Best 3-10 3-5 11, West 0-4 0-0 0, Gilbert 3-6 2-4 8, Durham 4-11 1-4 9, Allen 1-5 0-0 2, Lewman 1-1 0-0 2, J.Smith 3-4 0-2 6, Webster 0-0 0-0 0 Totals 20-51 FG, 12-22 FT, 54 TP
SOUTH PUTNAM (42) — Stein 4-14 1-2 10, Bieghler 2-12 9-12 13, Barker 1-8 0-0 2, Capps 3-5 2-2 9, Vanihel 3-5 0-0 8, Nichols 0-0 0-2 0, Vensko 0-1 0-0 0, Boswell 0-1 0-0 0, Bratcher 0-0 0-0 0, Hill 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-46 FG, 12-18 FT, 42 TP
Eastern Hancock 11 14 7 22 — 54
South Putnam 8 9 7 18 — 42
3-point shooting — EH 2-9 (Best 2-5, West 0-1, Gilbert 0-2, Allen 0-1), SP 4-19 (Stein 1-5, Bieghler 0-6, Barker 0-3, Capps 1-1, Vanihel 2-3, Boswell 0-1). Turnovers — EH 15, SP 21.
