By Jeff Robison
GREENCASTLE —Playing a recent opponent to open the sectional tournament isn’t always optimal. But, the Tri-West Bruins overcame a sluggish start and won going away with a 71-50 victory over the North Putnam Cougars on Tuesday night in Class 2A Sectional 46 at South Putnam.
It might not have been the total performance that first-year Tri-West coach Adam Bontreger would have preferred, but it was still a solid win to advance to Friday night’s semifinal round.
“We didn’t have a great start,” Bontreger said. “But, we battled through and kept our cool. (North Putnam) had a fresh mindset on how to attack us, but our depth really set us up well for the win.”
The Bruins had dispatched the Cougars 65-49 on February 22nd, but North Putnam had early hopes of pulling a surprise in the rematch. Keyed by the duo of Jacob Lucas and James Hedrick, North Putnam held a 13-4 lead off the opening tip.
Tri-West turned the early momentum with a heavy dose of 1-3-1 full court pressure defense, goading the Cougars into 12 first half turnovers. Offensively, the Bruins also generated a 12-2 run during the latter minutes of the first half as Tyler Waite expoded for 10 points in a row, including a three-point play and three-point basket along the way.
“We needed something to get us going, and tonight, that was our 1-3-1 defense,” Bontreger said. “I really wanted to play man, but our 1-3-1 has been good to us all year, and it was tonight, too.”
The Bruins appeared to be on the way to further opening their gap in the third quarter, but a 7-0 surge by the Cougars closed the gap back to eight points, at 45-37.
But, Matthew Moore, who led a solid bench effort with seven points, answered that charge with a trey to close the quarter out for the Bruins. From there, Tri-West closed strong with a 23-point final quarter.
“Tonight was a team win,” Bontreger said. “The starters didn’t play that well at the start. Our bench really stepped up. We got some lifts when we really needed it from the bench.”
Waite led all scorers with 21 points for the night. Lowe backed him up with another 14 points as Tri-West improved to 15-5 on the year. North Putnam (4-17) was led by Hedrick’s 16 points.
Tri-West returns to South Putnam at 6 p.m. Friday to face Monrovia. The Bulldogs, whose regular season game against Tri-West was cancelled, defeated Cloverdale 53-49 in Tuesday’s opening game.
