Eagles never recover from slow start in losing to North Vermillion

CAYUGA — South Putnam started slowly on Saturday night with four turnovers in its first five possessions against North Vermillion and never recovered in a 55-40 defeat.

The hosts led 16-10 at the first stop, with six first-period turnovers limiting South Putnam’s offensive chances.

A stronger second quarter from South Putnam brought the Eagles within one point late in the half.

Trailing 24-19, the Eagles got a basket from Dalton Scott and another from Thomas Fanning in the final minute.

North Vermillion’s Chris Ellis added a shot just before halftime to give his team a 26-23 edge at the intermission.

The third period was all Falcons, as the hosts hit 7 of 15 shots from the field and South Putnam could connect on just two of nine attempts.

The fourth quarter was played evenly, with Scott and Steven Schnepp both hitting treys for the Eagles and Fanning adding five points in the final 93 seconds.

Coach Greg Dean quickly pointed to one facet of the game where his team was soundly defeated.

“Rebounding was the difference right off the bat,” Dean said. “They might have outrebounded us with just their offensive rebounds. They had multiple possessions where they had more than one offensive board, and that was a significant difference in the game.”

Dean was also displeased with his team’s offensive performance.

“I didn’t think we were quite as patient as we were on Friday night,” he said. “We didn’t get into the paint as much as we wanted, but I thought we had some good looks that we didn’t knock down. We weren’t very good from the free-throw line either (33 percent).”

The Eagles had won two straight games and four of their previous five coming into the game.

“We allowed them to get into the lane in the first quarter,” Dean said. “It all started there. We have both positives and negatives to work on from this weekend and get ready for Riverton Parke, and then the sectional.”

Dean is confident his team will be able to fix its errors going into the final stretch.

“Our kids are pretty good right now at looking at film and making improvements,” he said. “That’s our goal, to look at this and get better.”

Allen Plunkett and Fanning led the Eagles with nine points, although Plunkett’s playing time was limited due to a succession of mysterious foul calls.Scott added eight.

SOUTH PUTNAM (40) — Plunkett 4-11 0-0 9, Scott 3-10 0-4 8, Fanning 3-10 3-3 9, Lesko 2-2 0-0 4, Arnold 0-0 0-0 0 Watson 1-4 0-2 3, Gregory 2-2 0-0 4, Schnepp 1-3 0-0 3, VanSickle 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-42 FG, 3-9 FT, 40 TP

NORTH VERMILLION (55) — Ellis 5-7 2-2 13, Woolwine 1-2 1-4 3, Eppert 7-14 5-9 19, Kilgore 2-6 3-4 7, Taylor 2-10 1-2 5, Naylor 0-2 0-2 0, Carron 0-2 0-0 0, Woodard 2-7 2-4 8. Totals 19-50 FG, 14-27 FT, 55 TP

South Putnam 10 13 4 13 — 40

North Vermillion 16 10 16 13 — 55

3-point shooting — SP 5-18 (Plunkett 1-2, Scott 2-6, Fanning 0-5, Watson 1-3, Schnepp 1-2), NV 3-9 (Ellis 1-1, Eppert 0-2, Taylor 0-1, Carron 0-1, Woodard 2-3).