Moore ‘held’ to 24 points as Cloverdale gets past North Putnam, 51-43

Friday, February 9, 2018
Jake Wilkes of Cloverdale goes up to defend a shot by North Putnam's Treyton Smith during Thursday night's county tournament.
Banner Graphic/JOEY BENNETT

North Putnam coach Collin McCartt would have easily signed a contract before Thursday night’s game if such a pact included the state’s leading scorer finishing 14 points under his average and him hitting just 6 of 23 shots from the field.

Cloverdale’s Jalen Moore missed his first eight shots and had his lowest scoring output of the season with 24 points, but it was still enough for the Clovers to beat North Putnam 51-43 and advance to tonight’s county championship game.

“I thought we did exactly what we had to on him,” McCartt said. “They had some other guys step up and hit shots again. In the first half, the offensive boards killed us; we did a better job in the second half.”

The Cougars opened the game in a diamond-and-one defense, with senior point guard Treyton Smith guarding Moore.

Moore went 0-6 from the field in the first quarter and missed his first two shots of the second quarter.

The Clovers were able to hold a 13-10 lead after one quarter thanks to the long-range shooting of junior Jake Kelley, who hit three straight treys to key his team offensively.

Nick Winders and Parker Watts each hit a trey in the evenly-played second quarter, as the Clovers still clung to a 25-22 halftime edge.

Cloverdale coach Patrick Rady thought some of the offensive struggles for both teams could have been a result of the 6 p.m. starting time that is different than normal.

“That’s when a lot of crazy things happen in March during the sectional,” Rady said. “Guys are creatures of habit and aren’t used to the routine. It’s something where you can’t take the floor here and go shoot, and I think it affected both teams.”

The Clovers were able to give themselves a little breathing room with a 14-point third quarter, the largest of the night for either team, and take a 39-31 lead at the final stop.

Kelley hit another trey in the third period, and Moore had his team’s last three baskets of the quarter.

Andrew Pickel tallied all nine Cougar points in the third period.

The Cougars opened the fourth period on a 7-0 run to make it a game again, as Smith sandwiched a two and a three around a Pickel basket to cut the gap to 39-38 with 5:17 to play.

Moore hit a pair of free throws to put his team ahead by three, but the Cougars got a basket from Elliot Gross with 2:13 left followed by a Pickel putback of a Smith miss to go up 42-41 with 2:01 left.

Moore hit another pair of free throws just three seconds later to put his team back ahead for good.

The Cougars ran a little time off the clock looking for a good shot, but committed a turnover with 1:03 left. Moore then broke through the Cougar defense for a lay up with 33 seconds left to give his team a three-point lead.

Smith hit a free throw with 24 seconds left to cut the gap to two, but the Cougars were done scoring for the night. Moore sandwiched a pair of free throws around two from Jake Wilkes in the final 23 seconds to seal the win.

“They did a good job of protecting the paint area,” Rady said. “We have got to get points in the paint and we relied too much on perimeter shots — and they weren’t going in tonight. We have to find ways to get better at that, whether it’s flashes, drives or postups.”

The Clovers hit just 7 of 26 shot from 3-point range.

Rady thought the Cougars played Moore the same way they did in their game two weeks ago, using both a specialty zone and man-to-man against him.

“They made it hard for him to get to the paint, and shots that he had hit two weeks ago he missed,” he said. “They definitely made him work for it. They protected the elbows and the blocks very well. Going forward, we’ll have to see what adjustments we can make to open those things up.”

Kelley had 12 points as the only other Clover in double figures.

Pickel was the only Cougar in double digits, as usual leading scorer Gross had eight points while attempting just seven shots.

McCartt was glad his team was able to have a chance at the end.

“We came up with some empty possessions after we took the lead at 42-41,” he said. “Then we had to foul, and we put Jalen at the line. Our guys battled the way we needed to battle.”

McCartt did not think the Clovers did anything special to limit Gross to single digits.

“We didn’t get him enough touches, but at the same time it’s a product of how we had to play with lower possessions,” he said. “In a game with lower possessions, I have to find a better way to get him more shots.”

McCartt also credited Cloverdale with some adjustments defensively that kept his team from scoring.

“They did pretty well when we spread it out,” he said. “They made it difficult for us to do what we wanted to do. They switched a lot, and they were able to get out in the passing lanes.

“We were able to adjust to some things,” McCartt added. “There were some spots in the third period when we did a good job of getting Andrew touches.”

One factor benefiting the Clovers was at the free throw line, where Cloverdale hit 14 of 14 attempts (all 10 in the fourth period) and North Putnam hit just 1 of 2 on the night.

The Cougars and Clovers could conceivably meet in a few weeks in the South Putnam Sectional, so McCartt has some time to modify his team’s strategies to try to keep the Clovers from winning their fourth straight sectional.

Cloverdale plays Greencastle tonight in the championship game at 7:30 p.m. The Clovers have won the past two county titles.

In December, the Clovers got 53 points from Moore in an 80-66 victory on their homecourt. Greencastle’s Colin York countered with 40 points in that game.

North Putnam will meet South Putnam in tonight’s consolation game at 6 p.m. The teams met in December, with the Eagles holding a 29-12 halftime lead but North Putnam pulling out the victory with a strong second half.

Gross had 22 points in that game for North Putnam, while Allen Plunkett had 28 for the Eagles.

NORTH PUTNAM (43) — Gross 4-7 0-0 8, Pickel 7-10 0-0 16, Smith 3-12 1-2 8, C.Duncan 2-8 0-0 5, J.Duncan 2-7 0-0 6, Murray 0-0 0-0 0, Davies 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-44 FG, 1-2 FT, 43 TP

CLOVERDALE (51) — Moore 6-23 12-12 24, Wilkes 1-7 2-2 4, Winders 2-3 0-0 6, Watts 2-7 0-0 5, J.Kelley 4-9 0-0 12, N.Kelley 0-2 0-0 0, Miller 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-51 FG, 14-14 FT, 51 TP

North Putnam 10 12 9 12 — 43

Cloverdale 13 12 14 12 — 51

3-point shooting — North Putnam 6-13 (Pickel 2-2, Smith 1-1, C.Duncan 1-3, J.Duncan 2-7), Cloverdale 7-26 (Moore 0-5, Wilkes 0-2, Winders 2-3, Watts 1-5, J.Kelley 4-9, N.Kelley 0-2). Turnovers — NP 13, Cloverdale 10.

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  • Ugly game!

    -- Posted by rs.67 on Fri, Feb 9, 2018, at 7:15 AM
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