Lady Patriots fall to North Putnam after lengthy downtime
With a Western Indiana Conference match-up with the Edgewood Mustangs postponed due to COVID-19 protocol, the Lady Patriots had a 10-day spread between games. Once play resumed for OV last Friday night, the rust showed through, with the Patriots falling 74-50 to the visiting Cougars on senior night.
"Obviously senior night, it's an emotional night. Every year you have seniors and this year is no exception," OV coach Trace Temples said. "(We have) a group of seniors that have been with us for a long time. I remember watching them in middle school and it's a great group of kids."
The two teams battled it out in the first quarter, tied 15-15, but North Putnam's offense continued to roll in the second and the Cougars led 34-26 at halftime.
Hot shooting kept the visitors rolling, while tight, double-down defense on OV's scoring leader, Reagan Martin, kept the Patriot offense at bay and North Putnam extended their lead to 58-40 heading into the fourth quarter. OV continued to battle, but it was not to be as the Cougars walked away with a 74-50 win inside Patriot Hall.
"Tonight, we were hoping to come out and play pretty well," Temples continued. "Honestly, in the first quarter, we kind of went back and forth and ended up tying it there toward the end of the first quarter, but they were just too much for us tonight. I thought we really got outplayed in most aspects of the game tonight. I think our kids were trying to battle. I think we were playing hard, but we let some of our fundamentals, our defensive fundamentals, kind of get relaxed tonight.
"This is a different kind of a team than we've played this year. They are not going to spend a lot of time on the offensive end. It's a really hard attack and if you help, they kick and shoot... and tonight, they did just that. They hit seven threes and made some really good decisions in transition. But our kids played hard. We've got to learn from this.
"Obviously this is not the direction we wanted to go after playing a really great game at Northview, but we did see some good contributions. I thought our kids played incredibly hard," Temples noted.
The Patriots were led in scoring by Reagan Martin with 15, followed by Taylor York off the bench with 14, Kyndall Drake added 11, Madi Kay five, Elizabeth Johnson three, and Lilly Smith two.
"Obviously Kyndall (Drake) with 11 on senior night," Coach Temploes continued. "Taylor (York) came in and gave us great energy with 14 points and all over the place, diving on the floor for loose basketballs and did a great job and battled till the end. You like to see that, you know, no matter what the score is, play till the end. Elizabeth Johnson had three points, but did so many other things tonight. (She) had the task of guarding their best player and one of the best players we've seen all year... really good at getting to the bucket, really good shooter. Madi Kay with five had some foul trouble early and Reagan with 15."
Martin also led OV on the boards with seven rebounds with York adding six, Kay and Johnson five each, Drake two, Kalyn Greene two and Smith one. Johnson led the team in assists with three while Drake, Kay and Smith each had two and Martin and York finished with one. On defense, the Patriots were led in deflections by Johnson with five, with Drake adding four, York two, Martin one and Hailey Smith one. York and Lilly Smith led the team in steals with two each while Kay and Martin added one each.
The Lady Patriots will finish out their regular season Thursday evening when they host the Edgewood Mustangs inside Patriots Hall. The JV/varsity doubleheader is set to tip-off at 6 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Evening World: Lady Patriots fall to North Putnam after lengthy downtime
