Over the holiday break, Putnam County’s boys basketball team was active, playing two games.
The War Eagles hosted rival and Class 3A’s No. 7 Baldwin on Friday and fell 64-63 to the Braves. The next day, they participated in the HypeSouth Classic in Macon and lost to Class 5A’s No. 10 Houston County, 65-64.
Putnam head coach Patrick Marshall said he learned something important about his team in the two losses.
“I always feel that you learn a lot about yourself in a loss, a little bit more than you do when you win,” Marshall said. “So even with those losses, we were able to grow and get better. One of the things I felt we were going to have trouble with is probably being complacent, losing that hunger to fight like we have something to prove. I think those two games showed us that we still have a long way to go, and we want to be that championship-level team that we need to be. But I like my chances. I like my guys, and we’re going to be okay.”
In the game against Baldwin, the War Eagles led 46-40 heading into the fourth quarter, but were outscored 24-17 in the period, resulting in the one-point loss. The Braves pushed harder in the fourth to secure the victory.
Baldwin’s Karez Demory and Jared Mundie were both unstoppable in the game’s final eight minutes.
Putnam struggled from the field, shooting 39 percent. The War Eagles also struggled from beyond the arc, only making 18 percent of their 3-point attempts. Despite their shooting miscues, they managed to lead for most of the game.
The Braves did dominate the boards, though, out-rebounding Putnam, 40-31. The War Eagles also turned it over 26 times.
Putnam had four players in double figures – Jeremy Banks (17 points), Jmari Greene (16 points), Shamar McClendon (12 points), and Tamaud Woodson (11 points). McClendon had a double-double with 12 rebounds.
The loss to Houston County was also hard to swallow, as the War Eagles shot 47 percent from the field while limiting the turnovers to 16. However, the Bears shot 62 percent from the field and outrebounded them, 35-32.
Still, Putnam only lost by one. Greene was the only War Eagle in double figures, scoring a season-high 30 points.
Putnam has struggled with shooting from beyond the arc, rebounding, and limiting turnovers so far this season, but the War Eagles plan to improve these areas in practice this week before their next game this Friday.
Putnam will host Northeast (Macon) on Friday at 7:30 p.m., followed by a rematch versus Baldwin in Milledgeville on Saturday at 8 p.m. The War Eagles will return home next Tuesday to host Jasper County, ranked No. 10 in Class A Division I, for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff. The matchup against the Hurricanes is the region opener.
Marshall has enjoyed seeing his team play a challenging schedule early in the season, a decision he made on purpose.
“That’s major. That’s the reason why I made our schedule like that,” he said. “Based on how we did in the playoffs last year, going in No. 1 and losing to Greenforest and still getting a six seed, I was like, it’ll be better for us to prepare through the whole year. When we get to that point, we’re going to play a good competition. And even though we lost both games by one, we could very well be 4-0. It’s not so much what someone did to us but what we didn’t do ourselves. That’s why we always conduct self-evaluation, get back into the lab, and try to fix it. Playing tough competition gives us the opportunity to see our flaws so we can get them fixed.”