After an up-and-down year, Putnam County’s boys basketball team hopes to advance to the postseason this week.
The War Eagles (16-9, 7-7) enter the Region 4-AA tournament with high aspirations. They are the No. 4 seed and must win their opening round game to advance to the Class AA state playoffs for a fifth straight year.
Putnam head coach LaPatrick Marshall is in his fourth season and has been a part of three of those playoff teams. Marshall is looking for more consistency out of his players as they will face some tough battles this week.
“We’ve got to try and be consistent. We haven’t been consistent all year,” Marshall said. “That happens when you have a young team. We only had one starting player returning after losing seven seniors last year.”
Marshall believes this year’s squad has a high ceiling and has seen flashes of potential as the season has progressed. But he is just waiting for his players to put all of the pieces together and play their best brand of ball.
“As the year went on, I saw some potential and good stuff,” Marshall added. “But I also saw some stuff we need to work on. We finished (the season) 16-9 overall, which was good for us. But now going into the region tournament, where we’ve already played everybody twice. It comes down to who wants it the most.”
The fourth-year coach knows his team is hungry. He feels it in the locker room before games and sees it on the court.
This week, Putnam will heavily rely on seniors Landon Bonner, Messiah Walker, and Ashton Collins to help lead the charge. These three have been with Marshall since the beginning and know his expectations well.
Marshall has seen Walker take great strides in the last few weeks. The 5-foot-11 guard started most of the season, but Marshall recently started using him as the team’s sixth man off the bench due to a personnel change.
Marshall highlighted that Walker handled the situation well and has encouraged his teammates since the switch.
“(Messiah) stepped up in a major way from a production and leadership standpoint,” Marshall said. “We were getting beat on the boards real bad, and we had to insert Bryce Brabham as another post player. We usually use a hybrid guard at the four spot (in our lineup), but we haven’t been getting many defensive stops.
“So, we had to take Messiah out of the lineup and put in Bryce. With Messiah being a senior, you might think he would go into a shell, but he has thrived in his new role. He’s been more productive and has gotten more minutes,” Marshall added. “I think it’s relieved some pressure off him. He has produced the last four games.”
Putnam went 3-1 over its last four games of the regular season, with Walker being a huge part of the success. Walker’s average point total is way up and he’s helped keep the flow of the game fluid for his team.
Marshall hopes the younger players catch on to how Walker has ascended into his new role on and off the court.
“Ever since the Washington County game, he’s been lights out. He’s balled out” Marshall said. “We made the change because we needed another big (man) in the lineup and he accepted his role. He has thrived in it.”
Putnam faced Laney on Tuesday (past print time). The winner moved on to the next round of the region tournament and qualified for the playoffs. The remaining teams will be playing for seeding the rest of the week.