South Putnam Eagles | Archive | December, 2008

Speedway
has returned to the top of the West Central Conference basketball standings.
The last time that occurred the Sparkplugs were 2A State Champions. Though not
as highly regarded this time around, they are making their claim to a WCC
crown.

The Sparkplugs defeated South Putnam 56-45 to move to 2-0 in
the conference. Combined with a victory over non-conference foe Greenwood Saturday, Speedway
is now 3-2 overall.

Elsewhere in the WCC, Monrovia
moved to 2-1 in the league with a 66-51 spanking of Cloverdale Friday. Chris
Sampson’s Bulldogs stand at 3-2 on the year and are still a major threat in the
conference race. Cloverdale rebounded Saturday by upsetting Tri-West 63-59. The
Clovers raced to a 21-10 first quarter lead and then held on for the win.

Things were a bit tougher for other conference schools on
Saturday. Beech Grove handed Cascade their fifth loss in six tries, 75-63.
Riverton Parke kept North Putnam winless on the year by downing the orange and
blue 62-52.

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Reprinted courtesy of: Greencastle Banner graphic

 Monday, December 8, 2008
By CAINE GARDNER, Sports Editor

Cameron Chestnut (11) rises to get a piece of Justin Bartrum’s shot during Saturday’s Putnam County Classic. [Order this photo]

South Putnam survived a 23-point fourth quarter run from the
Greencastle Tiger Cubs to capture the 2008 Putnam County Classic title
Saturday. The Eagles’ won the game 61-60 and moved to 2-2 on the
season, while GHS fell to 1-2.

Big games are defined by big moments and Saturday was no exception.
Leads faded, players made plays and the fans were treated to a knock
down, drag out battle with the championship on the line. What a way to
spend a Saturday night.

“The kids played hard,” South Putnam head coach Micah Elliott
said. “Give all the credit to the kids. They came out here and have
been waiting for this for a long time. We got a little reckless there
at the end, but we still kept our composure. I’m just happy for the
kids.”

Greencastle entered the half up five and looked to be in
control of the game, but things turned at the start of the third
quarter. The Tiger Cubs came out visibly flat and South Putnam took
advantage.

The Tiger Cubs were whistled for a technical foul at the 4:46
mark, which sparked the Eagles to go on a 9-to-1 and take control of
the game. Conor Frame scored eight points in the quarter as South
outscored Greencastle 19-7 and put the Tiger Cubs in a hole they
couldn’t overcome.

“The third quarter killed us,” GHS head coach Troy Greenlee
commented. “We had a little bit of a lead at halftime and for some
reason came out flat in the third quarter. We didn’t defend like we had
to, got down again and I told the guys after the game that we didn’t
begin to play with a sense of urgency until after we got down and you
can’t wait for that to happen.

“You can’t wait for that to happen because what happened tonight is what’s going to happen in situations like that,” he added.

Sensing the game slipping away from them, Greencastle steadied
themselves and went on a tear in the fourth, assuring that no fan would
be heading for the doors anytime soon.

Ashton Marshall scored nine points in the final quarter, with
Kyle Nobles adding six, but South Putnam knocked down shots at the line
to keep them in front.

Greencastle chiseled at the lead and after a Nobles basket,
they found themselves down just four. Two missed free throws by the
Eagles’ Cameron Chestnut gave the Tiger Cubs a little life, but time
was not on their side.

Jordan Hickam connected on a three with one second remaining, but the
horn sounded to which the South Putnam crowd exploded with fans
spilling onto the floor and some members of the team going into the
stands to partake in the celebration. The Eagles had won the Classic by
one point, 61-60.

“I’m happy for the student section — they have things to cheer
about now. They came out with great support and we really appreciate
them,” Elliott acknowledged.

When asked after the game about his team’s second half
performance, Greenlee indicated that the key to the game was the third
quarter.

“For some reason we just didn’t come out and have that
defensive intensity that we had to have,” he said. “We’re not a team
that’s not going to light people up offensively, so we weren’t able to
defend like we should have in the third and that ended up being the
difference in the game.”

He commented on how a team can’t have lapses such as that if
they want to succeed. He noted it was a team effort in games, but he’s
looking to seven individuals to help right the ship and get GHS to
where they need to be.

“I’ll tell you what, we have seven seniors on our team and I
just told them when we met in there, that they need to take ownership
of what we’re doing,” Greenlee said. “As a coach, I can only do so
much, they have to be the ones that get where we win games like this.
As coaches we do what we can, but they are the ones on the floor doing
it and they have to, again, take ownership of the team and be able to
get us playing at a higher level on both ends of the floor.

“We’re going to see what kind of leadership comes out of this,” he concluded.

A beaming Elliott stood at midcourt relishing in his team’s
victory. He’s also enjoying what he’s seeing out of his squad in just
their fourth contest together.

“We’re getting carry over from practice,” he said. “We caught
the ball, we ripped through and we were strong when we needed to be
strong. There were going to be fouls and we have to expect that down
toward the end of the game — we have to expect that. I’m just really
excited.”

In the consolation game, Cloverdale blended good shooting with
a wonderful defensive performance from Link Lovins to come away with a
66-57 win over North Putnam.

South Putnam will host Cascade, while Greencastle will host
Cloverdale this Friday at 7:30 p.m. The Cougars will host Rockville
Friday at 7:30 p.m.

At Greencastle

Putnam County Classic

Championship

South Putnam 16 9 19 17 — 61

Greencastle 18 12 7 23 — 60

Individual Statistics

South Putnam — Frame 14, Boswell 13, Welty 12, Chestnut 10, Masters 8, Dean 4. Totals: FG 20-40 FT 18-34 TP 61.

Greencastle — Marshall 22, Nobles 14, Huber 12, Hickam 6, Hutcheson 4, Harlan 25. Totals: FG 17-38 FT 18-25 TP 60.

3pt FG — GHS 6 (Huber 4, Hickam, Shuee), SP 4 (Welty 2, Chestnut, Frame

Putnam County Classic

Consolation game

Cloverdale 23 14 14 15 — 66

North Putnam 13 6 21 17 — 47

Next game — South Putnam will host Cascade, while Greencastle
will host Cloverdale this Friday at 7:30 p.m. The Cougars will host
Rockville Friday at 7:30 p.m.

Photo gallery: www.bannergraphic.com/gallery/33

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Reprinted courtesy of:Greencastle Banner Graphic

Saturday, December 6, 2008
By CAINE GARDNER, Sports Editor

South Putnam senior Noah Boswell scored 23 to lead the Eagles to a 67-59 victory Friday night. [Order this photo]

By CAINE GARDNER

Sports Editor

Blustery weather greeted the start to the Putnam County Classic Friday
night. It didn’t take long for fans trying the shake off the chill of
December to get warmed up with some hot action on the court though.

South Putnam advanced to the championship game of the Classic with their 67-59 win over North Putnam.

Like any great contest between rivals, the opening contest came
down to the final minutes of the fourth quarter and left fans on their
feet cheering as the final horn sounded.

After a hot start in the first half, it came down to the foul
line for the Eagles. They converted 18-of-25 free throws down the
stretch in the final period to come away with the win.

The first half saw the Eagles build a 16-4 lead after one and
held off a pressuring Cougar squad to take a 26-18 advantage into the
half.

Both teams came out with something to prove and laid everything
on the line. Unfortunately for North, the first half saw one player
collect three fouls, with four others taking two each into the locker
room. Both coaches commented after the game of how they were proud with
their team’s effort in the contest

“I’m proud of their effort,” Cougar head coach Brady Armstrong
said. “(It was a) rough start and that’s what beat us. You can’t get
down like that against them because they have a few more inches in the
interior. It’s just tough without Griffen Dahlstrom.” Dahlstrom is
currently out of the Cougar lineup as he nurses a sore shoulder.

Eagles’ head coach Micah Elliott echoed Armstrong’s sentiment
and singled out the start of the second half as being significant in
South Putnam’s progression as a team.

North Putnam’s Mitchell Crum shoots over Eagle teammates Cameron Chestnut and Nathan Welty in Friday’s contest. [Order this photo]

“I thought we played well in stretches and we played hard the whole
time. There could have been some times where we folded,” Elliott said.
“They gave us their best shot and knocked down a lot of three’s at the
beginning of the second half. Instead of just folding and panicking, I
thought we handled ourselves better.”

As Elliott indicated, the Cougars hit the court after the break and torched the nets early.

Corey Dean hit a three to get the scoring going, Mitchell Crum
added a two to keep it rolling and a three from Kyle Alcorn left no
doubt that the second half was going to be a battle. The Cougars’ 18
third quarter points equaled their total output in the first half.

The third quarter ended with essentially a five-point play by
South’s Noah Boswell. Boswell converted a shot while fouled by North’s
Scott Hunt, who protested the call and was charged with a technical.
Boswell knocked down his foul shot and the two technical shots and the
Eagles entered the fourth with a nine-point advantage.

“We wanted to run and when you have fouls you can’t run. It took away our gameplan to be honest with you,” Armstrong noted.

The Cougars outscored the Eagles 23-22 in the fourth, but Conor
Frame knocking down 10-14 in the final quarter to pace the Eagles.

Even in defeat, Armstrong saw a glimpse of what his team can be and likes what he is seeing.

“Our kids from last week to this week, in so many ways have
improved fundamentally,” Armstrong said. “We’re scoring the ball
better, we’re cutting better and they played with passion. Not proud of
the result, it’s not good enough; we’re not going to accept that
anymore.”

South Putnam collected 17 turnovers on the night, a far cry from their 34 against Edgewood in their last game.

Asked about what he is seeing out of his squad on the court,
Elliott alluded to the fact that they are beginning to understand the
offense and are making quick, decisive decisions when they present
themselves.

“Things are starting to click,” Elliot said. “You can see them
thinking out there and we need to take that thinking and turn that into
reaction and that’s going to take more than four weeks of the season.
We’ll get there. We got a lot better tonight and that’s the important
thing.”

Looking ahead to the championship game, Elliott says the Eagles
need to worry about what they do. They need to execute their gameplan
before they worry about anyone else’s.

South Putnam will face Greencastle in the championship of the
County Classic at 8 p.m. North Putnam will face Cloverdale in the
consolation game beginning at 6:30 p.m.

At Greencastle

Putnam County Classic

Game one

North Putnam 4 14 18 23 — 59

South Putnam 16 10 19 22 — 67

Individual Statistics

North Putnam — Crum 19, Alcorn 12, Dean 12, Ban 6, Adams 4, Hunt 2, Hedrick 2, Jones 2. Totals: FG 13-36 FT 19-21 TP 59.

South Putnam — Boswell 23, Frame 14, Nelson 8, Dean 7, Chestnut 6, Welty 5, Masters 2, Cash 2. Totals: FG 15-29 FT 31-42 TP 67.

3pt FG — NP (Crum 4, Dean 4, Alcorn 2), SP (Welty, Boswell).

Next game — South Putnam will face Greencastle in the championship of the County Cla

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It was a
tough start for West Central Conference teams on the hardwood. The league went
just 1-7 in games played during the opening week. The only victory belonged to
the Monrovia Bulldogs who kept possession of the coveted “Powder Keg” by
thrashing Eminence 85-65.

South Putnam
and Cloverdale had the toughest weeks of all conference teams. The Eagles fell
on Wednesday night to Turkey Run 59-44 and then succumbed to Edgewood 70-36 on
Saturday night. Meanwhile, Cloverdale fell to Covenant Christian 72-60 Friday
night and then lost a heartbreaker to Riverton Parke Saturday 66-63.

In other
action, North Putnam lost their opener to Southmont 68-42 Wednesday night. Also
on Wednesday, Cascade fell to a very good Plainfield team 82-59 and
Crawfordsville downed Greencastle 51-39.

Action this
week is highlighted by the Putnam County Tournament on Friday and Saturday
evenings. Also, conference play will begin on Friday night when Monrovia visits
Cascade. That is part of a very difficult weekend for the Bulldogs who return
home on Saturday to face a tough Danville team.

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