Blaydes pours in 27 points to key Eagle win

Monday, February 24, 2020
South Putnam’s Landon Clark goes up for a reverse lay up against North Vermillion on Saturday night.
Banner Graphic/Joey Bennett

CAYUGA — South Putnam’s boys’ basketball team had to do a major rebuild for this season, after losing more than half of its roster to graduation from last year.

Last week, the Eagles needed to do another partial reboot when two of their leading scorers — Steven Schnepp and Eli Smith — were injured in practice.

The Eagles battled Owen Valley tough on Friday before losing, but needed someone to step up on Saturday night at North Vermillion to take up more of the scoring slack.

Trey Blaydes was that guy.

The junior guard poured in a career-high 27 points on nearly perfect shooting from the field as the Eagles picked up a 53-35 victory.

“Obviously he knows that we need his scoring,” South coach Greg Dean said. “We need it all the time, but especially with those two guys being out. I thought he didn’t force things tonight, and he found openings and really good shots to take.”

North Vermillion had the hot hand early from the outside, hitting three treys in the first quarter to take a 10-9 lead after eight minutes.

Dean had warned his players about the Falcons’ outside shooting ability, but the defense did not react well enough.

“The very first thing we said to them about this game in the pre-game talk was that North Vermillion was going to come out and play really hard,” Dean said. “Coach [Cody] Wright has his team playing hard and believing in what they are doing. We had to match their energy and effort level, and for the most part we did.

“Defensively we were a lot better about staying between our man and the basket, but they got three threes early [their only ones of the game] because of dribble-drive and kick.”

The Eagles took the lead for good in the second quarter, as Dru Teipen had a two and a three to put South up 17-14 with 5:50 left in the second quarter.

Four different players scored in the period, with Blaydes scoring seven in that quarter.

The Eagles got a pair of baskets from senior Kain Gregory to open the second half and slowly inched their lead up to 39-29 after three periods.

The visitors dominated the final period by a 14-6 margin, with Blaydes hitting all three field goals and all four free throws he attempted in the period.

No other Eagles hit double figures, but Teipen had seven and Demetrius Leo had six to lead six other South players who got into the scoring column.

North Vermillion was led by senior Ethan Watson, who had 15 points to pace the Falcons.

Dean also likes the play he is getting from youngsters who are seeing their roles increase due to the injury situation.

One of those was junior guard Landon Clark, who played several flawless minutes in the second half off the bench.

“Landon was one kid who stepped up big for us,” Dean said. “He came in and played his first big-time varsity minutes. I’m proud of him.”

The Eagles have gone 4-4 over their past eight games, and will host Riverton Parke tonight in their final regular-season game.

South Putnam also drew Riverton Parke in next Wednesday’s sectional at Southmont.

“We’ve had a nice little run here at the end of the season, and we hope to get some people healthy for next week,” Dean said. “We’ll see what happens with Steven and Eli, and then go into the sectional.”

SOUTH PUTNAM (53) — Blaydes 9-12 2-3 27, Wiggins 2-2 0-0 4, Gregory 2-4 0-0 4, Teipen 3-8 0-0 7, Leo 3-5 0-0 6, Rector 1-1 0-0 3, Clark 1-1 0-0 2, Hammond 0-0 0-0 0, Goodpaster 0-0 0-0 0, Clearwaters 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-35 FG, 7-7 FT, 53 TP

NORTH VERMILLION (35) — Edney 2-5 0-0 5, Thomas 1-6 0-0 3, Norman 0-2 0-0 0, West 3-4 1-2 8, Watson 6-8 3-3 15, Bush 0-2 0-0 0, Naylor 2-5 0-0 4, Edwards 0-1 0-0 0, Blank 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 14-37 FG, 4-5 FT, 35 TP

South Putnam917131453
North Vermillion10136635

3-point shooting — South 4-6 (Blaydes 2-3, Teipen 1-2, Rector 1-1), North Vermillion 3-17 (Edney 1-4, Thomas 1-6, West 1-1, Watson 0-1, Bush 0-1, Naylor 0-1, Blank 0-2). Turnovers — South 10, North Vermillion 11.