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North Putnam rallies past Cloverdale to keep WIC hopes alive
BAINBRIDGE – To quote the late, great Harry Carey, “Holy cow!”
Two Putnam County teams went toe-to-toe and shot-for-shot to provide a thriller on Thursday night at North Putnam. The Cougars were able to come from behind and defeat the Cloverdale Clovers 69-66 in a Western Indiana Conference and Putnam County ‘Bucket’ game.
The Clovers owned the first half with lights out shooting from behind the arc to build a big lead. The Cougars climbed on Zach Huff’s back and rode the senior in the final two quarters to give North Putnam the hard-earned victory, coming back from a 15-point deficit in the first half. The win gives the Cougars a 9-2 overall record and a 6-1 WIC mark. Cloverdale dropped to 6-9, while being 3-4 in conference play.
“I was really proud of how our guys responded to adversity and battled back,” North Putnam head coach Vince Brooks said.
The Cougars needed to battle back because the Clovers came off the bus knocking down three-pointers. Cloverdale hit 7-of-12 from behind the arc in the first quarter. Six different players had a trey as the Cougars concentrated on the Clovers’ Kyle Thomas defensively, but Cloverdale put the hosts in a hole with its hot shooting.
Overall, the Clovers knocked down eight field goals and jumped out to a double-digit lead as Brady Koosman had eight points in the first period
“I was just super impressed with Cloverdale’s play. They had guys step up and hit shots,” Brooks said.
Cloverdale would end the quarter up 23-12 and seemed to have the Cougars on the ropes.
“Coach (Daniel) Varnes and Coach (Karl) Turk do a great job of scouting and setting a game-plan. We knew that that they might junk up the defense on Kyle (Thomas) and our guys went out and executed,” Cloverdale head coach Patrick Rady said.
The style changed a little in the second period. The three-ball was not as prevalent, but the Clovers were able to maintain their lead as the outside shooting freed Thomas up to get room in the paint. Thomas had eight points in the second quarter.
“Kyle played great tonight. He did what he needed to do and he played great defense as well,” Rady said.
North Putnam might have allowed the game to get away, but Zach Huff sparked the offense. The 5-10 senior point guard picked up six points in the period by going inside and craftily getting the ball up and in the basket among the bigger players, keeping the Cougars within striking distance.
Koosman and Thomas sparked the Clovers late in the quarter with a 9-0 run to give them their biggest lead of the game at 36-21, but a Huff layup late set the halftime score at 36-23 in favor of the Clovers.
“I thought we did a lot of really good things tonight, particularly in the first half. We were executing and took really good shots,” Rady said.
The Clovers shot 12-of-27 from the floor in the half, but it seemed like every shot they took went in. The teams were efficient with the basketball and combined for just seven first half turnovers and only had 15 total miscues in the game.
“Cloverdale put themselves in a position to go up big. Kyle Thomas is a special player and we focused on him and they had guys just knock down shots,” Brooks said.
North Putnam began to chip away in the third quarter. Zach Thomas opened the half with a layup, but North would get its own three-point shooting going. Huff nailed a trey and Ellis Lyons immediately picked up a steal and a three-ball of his own tp knock the deficit to under 10 points as the Cougars took control of the momentum.
Huff hit three from behind the arc in the quarter as he moved his game from in the paint to outside the three-point line. North closed the period with an Aaron Pickel old-fashioned three-point play to only trail by four points heading into the final quarter.
“There are moments when we just lean on Zach (Huff). We or I need to do a better job of putting him in position to do those things. He was just incredible,” Brooks said.
The big run by the Cougars did not faze the Clovers. Cloverdale did not let the big run take away all the momentum. Thomas showed why he is one of the area’s best players as he scored nine points in the final quarter and answered the Cougars at every turn.
Fortunately for the Cougars, they have a senior triumvirate to lean on. Huff, Lyons and Pickel were knocking down shots from about everywhere as a Huff three-point play gave the Cougars a 67-66 lead with less than a minute to play, the first Cougar lead since a 4-3 advantage early in the first quarter.
Cloverdale was not able regain the lead and Pickel was able to ice the game with two free throws late as the Clovers could not get a couple of three-pointers to go down in the final seconds to set the final margin at 69-66.
“We are close. We played really well early but lost a couple of their shooters a few times in the second half. You have to execute all the time against a team as good as North Putnam is,” Rady said.
Cloverdale’s Kyle Thomas had 23 points to lead the Clovers. His sidekick, Koosman added 18 points. North got a game-high 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting from Huff, while Pickel scored 17 and Lyons chipped in with 16.
“We made some adjustments at halftime and our guys did a really good job of executing those changes and responded well,” Brooks said.
Cloverdale will host a non-conference game on Saturday against the Clay City Eels, while North Putnam will host a boys/girls’ double header against conference foe, Brown County on the same day.
| Cloverdale | 23 | 13 | 13 | 17 | 66 |
| North Putnam | 12 | 11 | 22 | 24 | 69 |
CLOVERDALE (66) – Koosman 6-11 2-2 18, Hilton 1-6 2-5 5, Z. Thomas 2-4 0-1 5, Lee 3-4 0-0 6, K. Thomas 8-14 6-7 23, Jackson 2-7 0-0 6, Bridges 1-1 0-0 3, Betz 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-47 FG, 10-15 FT, 66 TP.
NORTH PUTNAM (69) – Hackleman 2-3 0-0 5, Pickel 5-12 6-9 17, McHargue 2-4 0-1 4, Lyons 5-12 2-4 16, Huff 10-13 2-3 25, Hensley 0-0 0-0 0, Monnett 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 25-47 FG, 10-17 FT, 69 TP.
3-point shooting – CHS 10-23 (Koosman 4-7, Hilton 1-5, Z. Thomas 1-3, K. Thomas 1-2, Jackson 2-5, Bridges 1-1) NP - 9-25 (Hackleman 1-2, Pickel 1-6, Lyons 4-9, Huff 3-6, Monnett 0-2). Rebounds – CHS 24 (Koosman 4, Hilton 4, Lee 5, K. Thomas 5, Jackson 3) NP – 25 (Hackleman 1, Pickel 9, McHargue 11, Lyons 2). FG Pct. – CHS 48.9, NP 53.2. FT Pct. – CHS 66.7, NP 58.8. Turnovers – CHS 8, NP 7.