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Cougars fall 62-55 to Southmont in season opener
NEW MARKET — Leading Southmont 51-41 with 5:30 to play on Wednesday night, North Putnam was in a good position to win its boys’ basketball season opener.
The Mounties dominated the game from that point, however, outscoring North Putnam 21-4 over the remainder of the game and winding up with a 62-55 victory.
“This one was on me,” North Putnam coach Collin McCartt said. “We got the 11-point lead [51-40 with 6:18 left], and I got a timeout to get us a set. We had one [timeout] left, and I managed it poorly.
“We made a run, and I didn’t feel like I could use my last timeout.”
The Cougars opened the game strongly, with three straight treys from senior guard Caleb Duncan helping North Putnam to take a 19-15 lead at the first stop.
Southmont then switched to a 1-3-1 zone defense, and forced the Cougars into five second-quarter turnovers.
North Putnam senior Elliot Gross, who had five first-quarter points, picked up his second foul and missed the entire second period.
Southmont took the lead at 29-25 going into the half.
Gross was back for the third period, and scored 11 of his game-high 20 points on his usual variety of drives to the basket using both hands.
Foul trouble returned as the half progressed, and Gross missed several minutes before fouling out midway through the final period.
“Obviously when I thought we had our guys on the floor, and they weren’t in foul trouble, there wasn’t much doubt that we were the better team,” McCartt said. “The game doesn’t work like that, and we’re going to have to learn how to fight through and not foul so much.”
The Cougars won the third period by an 18-9 margin for a 43-38 lead at the final stop, and opened the final period on a 5-0 run. A Gross basket, a Treyton Smith free throw and a basket by Andrew Pickel put North Putnam up 48-38 with 6:57 left.
After a pair of Southmont free throws, Duncan hit another trey for the 51-40 advantage.
From then on, it was all Mounties.
“Some of the time we got caught flat-footed and they were able to get some open threes,” McCartt said. “When we got down and really wanted to defend, we stayed in front of them. I’m disappointed for them, and I thought we deserved to win.”
One player McCartt felt his team did not feed the ball to enough was Pickel, the tallest player in the game who scored seven points on just five field goal attempts.
“Part of that was when they went to the 1-3-1 we got a lot of things from Elliot,” McCartt said. “When he got in foul trouble again, we didn’t get enough shots for Andrew.”
Duncan added 13 to support Gross in the scoring column, with seven different Cougars putting points on the board.
“Caleb shot the ball really well with three treys in the first quarter, then he hit another big one in the fourth quarter that gave us a double-digit lead,” McCartt said.
Southmont only had five players to score, but all five reached double figures.
Cam Chadd and Ty Williams each had 13 points, while Justin Howard, Patrick Scheidler and Cole Wemer each had 12.
The Cougars are idle until they open Western Indiana Conference play on Dec. 1 at South Putnam.
Southmont improved to 2-0, having defeated Turkey Run 83-33 on Tuesday night.
NORTH PUTNAM (55) — Gross 7-12 6-8 20, Smith 1-6 4-9 6, Pickel 3-5 1-2 7, J.Duncan 1-7 1-2 3, C.Duncan 4-10 1-2 13, Davies 2-2 0-0 4, Murray 1-3 0-0 2, Chandler 0-0 0-0 0, Huffman 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-45 FG, 13-23 FT, 55 TP
SOUTHMONT (62) — Chadd 6-15 1-3 13, Howard 5-11 1-2 12, Williams 5-10 2-4 13, Scheidler 4-7 2-2 12, Wemer 1-1 10-12 12, Glancy 0-0 0-0 0, Easter 0-2 0-0 0, Roach 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 21-45 FG, 16-23 FT, 62 TP
North Putnam 19 6 18 12 — 55
Southmont 15 14 9 24 — 62
3-point shooting — North Putnam 4-18 (C.Duncan 4-10, Smith 0-3, J.Duncan 0-4, Pickel 0-1), Southmont 4-18 (Chadd 0-4, Howard 1-4, Williams 1-4, Scheidler 2-4, Easter 0-1, Roach 0-1). Turnovers — North Putnam 18, Southmont 17.