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GREENCASTLE GIRLS' BASKETBALL SECTIONAL: Pistelli's career night helps Eagles ease past Panthers
The South Putnam Eagles have, over the last six seasons, been a tough out come tournament time in girls’ high school basketball.
Wednesday night at McAnally Center was a testament of that as the Eagles avenged an earlier 40-25 to the Riverton Parke Panthers in Class 2A Sectional No. 44 opening round play. The Eagles advanced with a 57-37 win and will take on the Parke Heritage Wolves in the semifinals Friday night.
South got to the free throw line and used an aggressive 2-3 zone defense to limit the Panthers as it led the contest from start to finish. The Eagles hit 21-of-32 free throws on the night in a foul-plagued contest and shut the Panthers down by turning them over 27 times on the night.
Riverton Parke’s season ended with a 10-11 record, while South is now 8-15 heading into Friday night.
“Our defense was really good. We made a couple of tweaks late in the season. Our girls really responded with moving their feet and talking. I thought our communication was excellent,” South Putnam head coach Brian Gardner said.
The Eagles jumped out to an early lead. South opened with a 9-2 run capped by Kelsey Custis’ three-pointer. South then pressured the Panthers into a 2-of-9 shooting quarter and was able to finish that first period with an 11-5 lead.
“We made everything hard for (Riverton Parke). I thought that was a key for us,” Gardner said.
Chlara Pistelli took over for the Eagles in the second quarter. The sophomore guard went to the basket, hit from the perimeter and the free throw line. She picked up eight points in the period and was complimented by another Custis three-pointer and one by Danae Cline. South slowly extended the lead to 25-13 heading to the locker room at halftime.
“Chlara was really aggressive tonight going to the rim. She made a lot of things happen. It was great to see her kind of coming out of her shell. I also thought we did a good job of getting her the ball in transition,” Gardner said.
The hard-driving Eagles made the Panthers pay from the free throw line in the third quarter. The period saw a total of 16 fouls called and South got to the double bonus before the end of the period.
South hit 10-of-14 free throws in the quarter with Pistelli getting another eight points, including consecutive steal and layup combinations, that gave the Eagles a 34-19 lead and forced a Panther timeout.
The timeout did little to stop the Eagles as they put the game away by scoring the last seven points of the quarter from the line to take a 43-23 lead heading into the final stanza.
“That (free throws) was great to see. Earlier in the year was flopped a lot with us only getting seven or eight free throws and other teams 15 or 20. We did a great job of being aggressive,” Gardner said.
The Eagles took the lead to 30 points at 55-25 before the benches emptied and the Panthers made a small run to cut the lead down to the final margin of 57-37 at the end of the game.
Riverton Parke was led by Bailey Duke with 15 points and 13 rebounds as the only double-figure scorer for the Panthers. Pistelli had a career-high 24 points and got support from an efficient Custis with 13 on 4-of-6 shooting and 2-of-2 from the line, while Lillian Emmerich came off the bench to knock in 10 points.
“Whenever you are going against a 1,000-rebound, 1,000-point player like Bailey Duke it is difficult. We did a great job of keeping her off the offensive boards. I thought we did a good job of looking to attack and recognizing when we could get to the rim and when to kick it out,” Gardner said.
South will play in the second contest on Friday night after the Greencastle-Cloverdale semifinal.
| South Putnam | 11 | 14 | 18 | 14 | 57 |
| Riverton Parke | 5 | 8 | 10 | 14 | 37 |
SOUTH PUTNAM (57) –Custis 4-6 2-2 13, Cline 2-7 3-6 8, Pistelli 7-14 9-10 24, Pilcher 0-2 1-2 1, Gardner 0-5 0-0 0, Emmerich 2-2 5-8 10, Dooley 0-0 1-2 1, Jeter 0-0 0-2 0, Phillips 0-0 0-0 0, Holderfield 0-0 0-0 0, Wallace 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-36 FG, 21-32 FT, 57 TP.
RIVERTON PARKE (37) – Mathas 0-4 0-0 0, Barnes 2-8 2-4 6, K. Nowicki 1-2 0-0 3, Vanatti 0-0 0-1 0, Duke 6-16 3-7 15, M. Nowicki 3-9 0-2 6, Adams 1-5 1-2 3, Nelson 1-2 0-0 2 Brown 1-3 0-0 2, Cash 0-1 0-0 0, Fellows 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-50 FG, 6-16 FT, 37 TP.
3-point shooting – SP 6-11 (Custis 3-4, Cline 1-3, Pistelli 1-2, Pilcher 0-1, Emmerich 1-1), RP 1-10 (Mathas 0-4, Barnes 0-2, K. Nowicki 1-1, Duke 0-2, Nelson 0-1). Rebounds – SP 34 (Custis 3, Cline 5, Pistelli 3, Pilcher 5, Gardner 2, Emmerich 7, Dooley 1, Jeter 3, Wallace 1) RP – 26 (Barnes 1, K. Nowicki 1, Vanatti 1, Duke 13, M. Nowicki 2, Adams 5) FG Pct. – SP 41.7, RP 30.0. FT Pct. – SP 65.6, RP 37.5. Turnovers – SP 22, RP 24.