Putnam County basketball’s season came to a close on Feb. 13 with a loss to Laney in the region tournament. The Wildcats avenged two losses earlier in the year to Putnam by knocking off the War Eagles 75-70 in the first round.
Laney’s victory qualified it for Class AA state playoffs and eliminated Putnam from contention. The War Eagles missed the postseason tournament for the first time in head coach LaPatrick Marshall’s short tenure.
“That game was kind of a microcosm of our season (and) how stuff went,” Marshall said. “We’ve been preaching all year about how we can’t just turn it on when we want to. We’ve just got to be more consistent.”
A poor performance in the first two quarters plagued Putnam as it played from behind the entire second half. The Wildcats held a seven-point lead after the first quarter and then led the War Eagles 36-22 at the half.
Marshall’s squad woke up in the second half, though. Landon Bonner and J’mari Greene led the charge offensively, helping Putnam get back into the game; however, the War Eagles still trailed 53-43 at the end of three.
Laney’s presence inside the paint made it hard for Putnam to grab rebounds on both ends of the court. The Wildcats dominated the boards and forced the War Eagles to make countless mistakes by turning the ball over.
Putnam underclassmen Tamaud Woodson and senior Messiah Walker played valuable minutes. They assisted Bonner and Walker in keeping the War Eagles alive late in the game, trailing 60-53 with 4:50 left in the fourth.
It just wasn’t enough, though.
The Wildcats got the lead back to double-digits in the closing minutes and finished strong from the foul line, draining most of their free shots.
“We’ve got the capability of playing with anybody when we want to, but at times we were inconsistent and it came back to bite us that day,” Marshall said of the five-point loss. “Sometimes it’s not how you finish, but how you start. We started bad but just couldn’t pull it out at the end.”
Greene scored a game-high 26 points, followed by Bonner with 25 and Walker contributing 11 points.
Putnam County finished 16-10 overall and 7-7 in the region. The program will lose three seniors – Bonner, Walker, and Ashton Collins – to graduation in May, but returns several underclassmen who played a lot this year.
Marshall spoke highly of Collins, who has been with him for the past four years.
“(Ashton) was the ultimate team player. He knew sometimes he wouldn’t get into the game, but still cheered on his teammates,” Marshall said. “He is also a great student and has the highest GPA on the team.”
Bonner and Walker both joined the team after Marshall’s first season and made a huge impact. Last season as a junior, Bonner was the team’s second-leading scorer, trailing only the program’s all-time leading scorer, Eren Banks.
In 2023-24, Bonner led the team and Region 4-AA in scoring, averaging just over 23 points per game. Walker was the sixth man off the bench the past few years and was a starter for most of his senior season as well.
“They’re all going to be missed,” Marshall said. “Each one of them helped the program out in different ways.”
While the War Eagles are losing their leading scorer and two important role players, the future of the team remains bright. They will return several starters from this season’s team and other underclassmen who played big roles.
Marshall hopes his younger players can grow and develop in the offseason and will return hungry next season. He wants to see more consistency from next year’s team, which he thinks has a large amount of potential.
“I’m extremely excited. We’ve got to come back and fix some of the fundamental stuff, though,” he said. “This season, as a coach, we got away from some of the core values that built this program to where it was. I’ve got to get it back to that year one mentality. I think we will be back. It will be a good journey and we can go far with these young guys. We’ve got the talent but need to be more disciplined and do what it takes to win.”