Cougars split with Riverside, Shakamak in tip-off tournament

Monday, November 7, 2022
North Putnam’s Rose Haste found herself under increased watch after hitting four threes during Saturday’s championship game of the Hoosier Heartland Tip-Off Classic against Shakamak. Haste led the Cougars with 14 points in the 37-32 loss to the Lakers.
Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT

BAINBRIDGE — Following up on its season-opening win at North Vermillion Tuesday, North Putnam hosted the Hoosier Heartland Tip-Off Classic Saturday, bringing in Riverside, Riverton Parke and Shakamak for two games each for all parties involved.

The Cougars rolled the Argonauts in the opening game 58-13 but fell to the Lakers in the championship game 37-32.

“One of the things we took away from the second game is that our zone offense needs a lot of work,” North Putnam head coach Craig Franklin said. “We don’t have a lot of experience under our belt and we didn’t have a summer with them, so a lot of the things we’re learning are on the fly.

“The things we saw are things we need game experience for and we’re starting to get that. This tournament is great for that.”

The final against Shakamak started evenly as a Rose Haste three gave the hosts an early 5-3 lead.

JaLee Webb pushed the Lakers back in front 6-5 before a pair of threes from Chase Hammond, her second and third of the quarter, helped the visitors shoot out to a 14-5 lead after eight minutes.

The lead would reach as high as 11 points at 21-10 following a steal and score from Layni Stone while Haste hit a late three, her second of the period, to bring the lead back down to single digits 21-13 by halftime.

“Early, some of our stuff worked,” Franklin said about the first half. “When (Shakamak) adjusted, we don’t have enough knowledge of things we can do when other teams start taking things away from us.”

Haste’s fourth three of the game dragged the lead down to four at 23-19 while Jacy Huffman reduced the gap to one with a three in the last two minutes.

Two Haste free throws briefly gave the Cougars the lead back at 24-23 with Stone tying the game at 24-24 heading into the final period.

Shakamak struck hard out of the gate in the final period with a Hammond jumper and Aubree Langford three.

Another three from Hammond pushed the lead to six at 32-26 with three minutes to play with the sophomore adding two more free throws before a Langford jumper made it 36-28, a gap the hosts did not have time to close, suffering their first loss of the season.

“We fought through adversity really well,” Franklin said about the loss. “We could have come out in the second half, laid down a little bit but we fought.

“It was unfortunate a couple of things didn’t go our way to start the fourth quarter and we were scrambling after that.”

The opening game against Riverside was over before it began as North Putnam led 30-0 after the opening quarter.

Five different Cougars scored at least five points in the quarter, on in which North Putnam was 10-of-14 at the free throw line, with Samie Hoops leading the charge with eight points, Lexi Daigle and Kyndal Brewer scoring six points each and Haste and Addi Osburn chipping in five points each.

The scoring pace slowed moving forward though Kassidy Hackleman was able to score five points while Hailee Daigle and Melanie Davies scored four points each in the second quarter while Brewer scored six points and Osburn four points in the third quarter.

“We’re still super new to our offense and defense and we wanted to clean some things up that we worked on after playing North Vermillion,” Franklin said about what he was looking for against the Argonauts. “We were really pleased with how we came out.

“Riverside is a team that is in transition, so we got to some things easier than we expected, but the girls, with the time they got, did a good job of executing the things we ran. We got a lot of extra playing time for our younger girls, which is great to get on film.”

North Putnam returns to action Tuesday night at Crawfordsville.

Franklin said there was a lot unknown about the Athenians and it would be more about going in with the girls trusting their own game rather than looking to shut down the opposition.

“There’s not a lot of film out there to scout yet, so it’s about going out, doing what you do and getting that to work,” Franklin said. “Now that we’re starting to get a few games on film, we’ll know a little bit more about what we need to do as coaches to get the girls ready for the next game.

“We’ll have a day to prep for Crawfordsville and it will be about us going out there and doing what we can do.”

In the other two games of the event, Shakamak defeated Riverton Parke 47-34 with the Panthers later defeating Riverside 57-9.

Hoosier Heartland Tip-Off Classic

Championship Game

Shakamak14731337
North Putnam5811832

Scoring

Shakamak (8 2FG; 5 3FG; 6-14 FT) — Hammond 16, Langford 10, Webb 7, Stone 4, Rodriguez 2, Kennett 1

North Putnam (3 2FG; 6 3FG; 8-13 FT) — Haste 14, Brewer 6, Huffman 5, Osburn 4, Hoops 2, L. Daigle 1

Game One

North Putnam301511158
Riverside081413

Scoring

North Putnam (19 2FG; 3 3FG; 11-22 FT) — Brewer 13, Osburn 9, Hoops 8, H. Daigle 6, L. Daigle 6, Haste 5, Hackleman 5, Davies 4, Mason 2

Riverside (1 2FG; 3 3FG; 2-8 FT) — Karrick 6, Thomas 4, Smith 3

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