Cougars even record at 1-1 with 40-34 road win

CRAWFORDSVILLE – For just the second time in the past 14 meetings, North Putnam girls’ basketball team defeated Crawfordsville 40-34 Tuesday night in a non-conference battle.

“We have a long way to go, but we will take the win,” North Putnam head coach Jarrod Duff said. “In both our games we have turned the ball over way too many times, but tonight, especially in the second half we played hard and we used our defense to get stops and that was the key to the game.”

The Cougars (1-1) came out strong and took an 8-0 lead in the first quarter, but saw the Athenians (0-2) cut that lead to 11-10 at the end of the first quarter. Then in the second quarter it was much of the same as the Cougars led 18-10 with 4:12 to play in the first half but saw Crawfordsville go on a 11-2 run to close out the half and take a 21-20 lead at the break.

“We talked a lot about playing better defense at halftime,” Duff said. “We were struggling a bit on offense, partly because of our turnovers, and we told them if we were going to win the game it was going to be because of our defensive effort. I really thought we stepped it up in that second half.”

The Cougars finally pulled even with the host when Payton Lyons hit a jumper with 2:38 to play in the third period. Freshman Kayla Willis came up with one of her many steals on the night and turned that into a layup to put the Cougars up 28-26 and the visitors never trailed after that.

“She plays hard and she made some mistakes, but she gives it 110 percent and when you do that you might make a few mistakes and we are OK with that,” Duff said.

Freshman Brie Miller had a monster game as she led the Cougars with 14 points and 18 rebounds. All but two of her points came in the first half, but the rebounding continued throughout the game.

“Any time you pull down that many rebounds you have had yourself a great game,” Duff said. “And she is only going to get better. There were times tonight she settled for four or five-footers and we want her to continue to take it to the hole and finish it.”

Also earning the praise of the coach was junior Baylee Osburn.

“At times tonight I thought we lost a little passion, but she has and plays with that passion 100 percent of time,” Duff said. “In the second half I feel like she played with so much passion that the rest of the team fed off of it.”

In addition to Miller, Willis and Osburn each chipped in nine points and the Cougars outscored the Athenians 16-5 from the foul line.

Crawfordsville was led in scoring by Lauren Kellerman’s 12 points.

The Cougars managed to open a 39-29 lead with one minute to play before Crawfordsville was able to cut it to the final margin.

North Putnam will open its home season on Tuesday against Covington.

NORTH PUTNAM (40) – Tennis 1-7 0-0 2, Sims 0-5, 2-4 2, Osburn 2-4 5-6 9, Willis 3-12 3-6 9, Miller 4-12 6-11 14, Lyons 2-6 0-0 4, Gibson 0-0 0-0 0, Gierke 0-0 0-0 0, Pace 0-0 0-0 0. 12-46 FG 16-27 FT 40 TP.

CRAWFORDSVILLE (36) – Simmons 3-6 1-2 8, Barnett 1-7 2-2 4, Kellerman 5-14 2-3 12, Williamson 0-2 0-0 0, Laskowski 1-8 0-0 2, Reed 1-2 0-0 3, McCarty 0-1 0-0 0, Balaz 0-0 0-0 0, Sinnett 0-1 0-0 0, York 2-6 0-0 5. 13-46 FG 5-8 FT 34 TP.

3-Point Goals – North Putnam 0-7 (Tennis 0-3, Sims 0-1, Willis 0-1, Lyons 0-2); Crawfordsville 3-22 (Simmons 1-2, Barnett 0-2, Kellerman 0-5, Williamson 0-2, Laskowski 0-5, Reed 1-2, McCarty 0-1, York 1-3). Turnovers – North Putnam 25, Crawfordsville 30. Rebounds – North Putnam 45 (Miller 18); Crawfordsville 36 (Kellerman 11). Junior Varsity – North Putnam 38, Crawfordsville 37.