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Clovers to battle Monrovia for title
Patrick Rady has been beaming lately over his team’s improved defense.
Realistically, to this point the high-scoring Clovers often wind up with enough points so that their defensive performance rarely leads to a defeat.
Friday night was different.
The Clovers ran into a tough, scrappy bunch of North Putnam Cougars in the second game of the South Putnam Sectional and didn’t get as many great shots as they like. When they did get them, they didn’t fall as well.
Earlier in the season, this game would have been a big “L” for the green and white squad — but a stellar defensive effort offset its offensive shortcomings and led Rady’s team to a 61-51 win, and a berth in tonight’s championship game against Monrovia.
“Our defense was really good, and that’s what won the game for us,” Rady said. “I thought we took them out of what they wanted to do. We had them well-scouted, and we knew everything they were going to do.”
North Putnam did not dent the scoring column until 1:51 left in the first quarter, as Duke Duff was fouled while shooting a 3-pointer and hit all the free throws.
The Cougars started the game in a diamond-and-one zone, with Duff guarding Neese, but still trailed 10-0 until Duff’s free throws.
“The start hurt our game plan,” Cougar coach Collin McCartt said. “Getting down a couple of baskets was not going to be a big deal, but getting down 10-0 like we did made us take some quicker shots.”
Jalen Moore only had two points in the first quarter for Cloverdale, but poured in 12 points in the second period as his team extended its 15-8 lead after one period to 33-21 at the half.
North Putnam would win the second half by a 30-28 margin, shaving two points off the halftime deficit to trail 47-37 at the final stop.
Cloverdale’s Jake Wilkes hit a 3-pointer to open the final period, buts the Cougars then took off on an 11-2 run that cut the deficit to 52-48 with 1:53 to play.
Preston Porter started the run with a pair of free throws, and Elliot Gross followed up with back-to-back hoops.
Cloverdale’s Seth Pfaff interrupted the run with a putback of a Moore miss with 4:13 left, before Treyton Smith hit a basket and Porter hit a trey to cut the gap to four points.
The next play was painful for the Cougars, as Neese drove to the basket, hit a reverse layup and was fouled on the play. He hit the free throw, and the foul was also the fifth on Gross, who led the Cougars in scoring.
Neese and Wilkes hit 6 of 6 free throws in the final minute to seal the win.
“I think it was a bad shooting night for us,” said Rady, whose team has been hitting better than 40 percent of its 3-point attempts in most recent games but was just 3 of 26 on Friday. “I thought we got open looks, and I thought maybe we rushed some things at time. If we had reversed the ball a couple more times we could have gotten better looks.
“It’s difficult to shoot well every night.”
McCartt watched Neese and Moore combine for 71 points on Tuesday night against Southmont, and was pleased to be able to hold the pair to just 38 — far below their combined season average of 55 points per game.
“We did about as good of a job as you can do getting in front of them,” McCartt said. “It’s really hard. Duke did a great job, and there were a lot of things that worked.”
Rady noted that rebounding has been a big emphasis for his team since the Danville game, referring to the team’s only loss in its last 16 games.
“We have taken it to heart, and guys like Jake and Seth have really done a good job of hitting the boards,” he said. “They were both relentless and really competed in this game, and you have to do that.”
McCartt was pleased with how his team fought to get back in the game.
“Our guys kept battling the entire way,” McCartt said. “We had some chances down the stretch, and we just couldn’t hit the shots. I was really proud of their effort.”
The Cougars will lose seven seniors from this year’s squad, and McCartt knows he’s going to miss them.
“They were great,” said McCartt, who has had six of them for all three of his years at the school and Duff for two after transferring from Cloverdale. “It may be unusual to have seven seniors at a smaller school, but we had guys who contributed in different ways.
“They are the class that started to turn this thing around in North Putnam basketball,” he added. “From coming in here three years ago and winning only three games, and not being competitive in a lot of games, to where we were so competitive this year. We think we should have had about 15 wins this year, and that’s a credit to these seniors.”
McCartt noted that four of the seniors are going to college at Purdue — “that’s pretty impressive,” he said — and the others are still deciding on their college choices.
“There are going to be a lot of successful people out of that group,” McCartt said. “I’m going to miss them, not just on the court but just being around them all the time. I told them that losing is a part of this thing, but it’s going to be tough not seeing them every day.”
The Clovers will seek their third straight sectional title against a Monrovia team they met in Cloverdale on Dec. 21, with Neese hitting a 3-pointer late in overtime to give his team a 74-71 win that night.
“It’s not easy at this time of year, and we know that we have to be ready to play 32 minutes,” Rady said. “They have some length, and one really great scorer in Luke Smith. ”
The Bulldogs start 6-6 senior Max Seber and 6-7 sophomore Max Newman, who are both taller than any Clover players.
“We are going to have to keep them off the glass,” Rady said. “Hopefully we can get back into transition and be able to not let [Luke] Smith go off. “
NORTH PUTNAM (51) — Gross 7-10 0-0 14, Porter 4-12 2-2 13, Judy 1-4 0-0 3, Duff 1-2 8-8 10, Smith 2-9 0-2 4, Pickel 2-4 0-0 4, Webster 1-2 0-0 3. Totals 18-46 FG, 10-12 FT, 51 TP
CLOVERDALE (61) — Neese 7-19 5-5 20, Moore 7-25 3-3 18, Wilkes 5-8 2-2 13, Winders 2-6 0-0 4, Pfaff 3-8 0-0 6, Watts 0-2 0-0 0, Rossok 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-68 FG, 10-10 FT, 61 TP
North Putnam 8 13 16 14 — 51
Cloverdale 15 18 14 14 — 61
3-point shooting — Cloverdale 3-26 (Neese 1-9, Winders 0-3, Moore 1-11, Wilkes 1-1, Pfaff 0-2, Watts 0-1), NP 5-17 (Porter 3-10, Judy 1-1, Smith 0-1, Webster 1-2).
Next game — Cloverdale (20-6) plays Monrovia (16-9) at 7 p.m. today for the sectional title. North Putnam finished 10-14.