Before the start of the 2024-25 season, Putnam County boys basketball head coach Patrick Marshall and his players established one goal: to win the program’s first state title.
The War Eagles’ pursuit of that goal begins this week, and they’re prepared to make a run.
“We’ve put pressure on ourselves,” Marshall said. “We’ve got expectations and want to live up to them.”
Putnam played a challenging schedule, which Marshall believes equipped his team for the playoffs. Last Friday, the War Eagles (25-2) lost to defending Class A Division II state champion Greenforest in the region championship game. The Eagles (20-5) won 77-59 to secure the region title.
Greenforest led by only five points at halftime in the region title game, but a slow start to the third quarter cost Putnam. The War Eagles scored just seven points in the third and trailed the Eagles by 13 going into the final quarter.
Fatigue had set in for Putnam after defeating Towers 100-94 in a double-overtime thriller the night before. The War Eagles outlasted the Titans as Jmari Greene scored a season-high 36 points while Tamaud Woodson contributed 28. Jaylen Nelson and Shamar McClendon each added 10 points.
However, Putnam ran out of gas against a tough Greenforest team. The Eagles took advantage of the War Eagles’ exhaustion and outscored them 37-24 in the second half.
Jaylin Harper led Putnam in scoring with 17 points, followed by Woodson, who added 13 in the loss.
“We battled, kept it competitive, and fought to the end,” Marshall said of the loss to Greenforest.
The War Eagles’ only losses this season were to Greenforest, and Marshall called those games a “measuring stick.”
“[Those games were] a good test for us,” he admitted about his team’s twin losses to the Eagles. “We didn’t come out on top, but that has prepared us for this playoff run we’re about to make.”
Putnam enters the postseason as the No. 6 seed in the Class A Division I tournament. The War Eagles spent much of the 2024-25 regular season ranked No. 1 in the state but recently fell five spots.
Marshall and his players don’t consider the seeding disrespectful. They just want to win the state title.
“At the end of the day, you’ve got to go play ball. We’ve got to line up, go out there, and play,” Marshall said. “We set goals for ourselves, and now we’ve got to achieve them. We plan on playing 32 games and have five left. We want to do what’s in our best power to go out there and do it.”
Putnam’s postseason run began Wednesday (past press time) against No. 27 seed Central (Macon). The winner will face No. 11 Commerce or No. 22 Dodge County on Saturday in the second round.