North Putnam suffers first loss against Sullivan

ROACHDALE - The Sullivan Golden Arrows used balanced scoring, tough defense and timely passing to roll to a 71-47 victory of the host North Putnam Cougars Friday night in boys’ WIC play.

The Arrows would get out of the gates quickly, taking advantage of Cougar turnovers, racing out to a 9-0 lead. Their quickness would show throughout. North started to right the ship and kept the game within contact, playing even for the rest of the quarter. Mason Garriott hit a pair of three balls to help the cause, but the hosts would trail 19-11 at the first break.

The teams would play even for the second quarter. Nolan Hackleman hit a three and got some of the hosts’ inside play going with freshman Isaac Pickel. The Cougars left some chances at the charity stripe though, going 3-of-9 in the period, leaving some points on the table. Luckily, Sullivan wasn’t able to pull away leading by 10 at halftime.

In the second half the visitors would gradually pull away. The Arrows became very efficient on the offensive end. The Cougars, on the other hand, were not knocking down their long-range shots as they usually do, going 0-4 in the third quarter.

Luke Adams used his quickness to get to the rim on several occasions for Sullivan, which knocked down a pair of threes, one from Javyn Woodard and one from Carson Granby as it increased its advantage to 55-38.

The Arrow defense continued to lock down the Cougar offense as shots became hard to come by and Sullivan kept creeping out further and further. The visitors did a text book job of drive and dish to get great looks at the basket down the stretch and pull away to the 71-47 victory.

“The first half was tight. We didn’t shoot well from the foul line and we had a couple careless turnovers but I was proud of our guys at halftime. Man, (Sullivan) is a really good team. Adams is tough, he is really quick and we struggled to contain him,” said North Putnam coach Vince Brooks.

“I saw a lot of positives though. Our guys, like always, play hard and fight. I just felt that we were reacting to their pressure and they were not to ours. When you play against a good team, you can test out some tactics and see where some holes are. I think we found some tonight,” added coach Brooks.

North takes its first loss of the early season as they fall to 3-1 and 2-1 in the conference. Garriott led the way with 10 points, while Nolan Hackleman scored nine and Brayden Monnett eight. Monnett also paced them in rebounds with four. Sullivan moves to 4-1 on the year and 2-0 in early conference action.

Team Stats

Individual Stats

Scoring - (N) Garriott 10, Hackleman 9, Monnett 8, Helderman 6, Barber 5, Pickel 5, Windmiller 2, Farrington 2; (S) Adams 17, Bock 16, Woodard 15, Roshel 7, Gettinger 7, Granby 7, Ortiz 3

Rebounding - (N) Monnett 4, Windmiller 3, Farrington 2, Pickel 2, Barber 1, Hackleman 1, Helderman 1; (S) Bock 5, Adams 3, Roshel 3, Ortiz 2, 5 with 1