North Putnam completed a comeback win to down Crawfordsville 44-41 in girls’ basketball action on Tuesday night.
The Athenians led by as many as five in the third quarter and held a 32-30 advantage after three quarters, but the Cougars outscored Crawfordsville 14-9 over the final eight minutes to secure the win.
“I thought the game turned when we had a five-point lead, and we were a couple stops away and left our assignments and gave up a couple corner 3s,” Crawfordsville coach Tyler Smith said.
Samie Hoops and Rose Haste led North Putnam with 11 points apiece. The pair combined for four 3-pointers, including a trio from Hoops. The Cougars connected on 4-of-11 triples in the second half.
North Putnam led 21-20 at the half, but a flurry of points from the Athenians pushed them ahead early in the third quarter.
Addie Hodges knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter to give Crawfordsville their biggest lead of the game at 28-23, while the Athenian defense held the Cougars scoreless for nearly four minutes. Hodges led the Athenians with 10 points.
“We want to lead with defense,” Smith said. “And I think defense created offense, and we’d like to ramp that up even more.”
A Hoops 3-pointer at the 2:47 mark though cut the lead to 28-26, as Crawfordsville held a 32-30 lead after three quarters.
North Putnam tied the game at 32-32 on a bucket by Lexi Daigle, before a 7-0 Cougar run made it 39-34 with 4:51 to play.
Crawfordsville twice was able to cut it to a 3-point game, but were unable to get any closer in the final minutes.
“This group is continuing to learn, and I told them we are going to learn how to close out close games by the end of the year,” Smith said.
Taylor Abston added nine points for the Athenians, all in the first half, while Elyse Widmer score eight, and Riley Gardner and Madison Hedrick seven apiece.
Crawfordsville was just 16-of-57 from the field, while North Putnam was 15-of-56. The Cougars’ 8-of-22 mark at the free throw line, including 2-of-9 in the fourth quarter, played a factor down the stretch, but North Putnam was able to do just enough to hold on.
Rebounds were even at 24 apiece, while each team turned it over 19 times.
“You’d love to have a win or two these first two games, but I thought even the other night despite the lopsided score and down a starter, our fight was there,” Smith said. “So if we keep bringing energy and playing together, especially on the defensive end. There’s a lot of games on our schedule that we maybe feel better about than what some people felt in the offseason with what we lost. Would love to have had the W, but a good building block and a lot of home games coming up.”
Crawfordsville is now 0-2, while North Putnam improves to 3-1.
Crawfordsville entertains Tri-West on Friday.
