Western Boone Jr. - Sr. High School

It wasn't a thing of beauty, but the Western Boone boys basketball team found a way to get it done on Tuesday night against visiting North Putnam. The visiting Cougars cut a once 18-point lead down to two in the final minutes, but the host Stars executed enough plays down the stretch to come away with a 60-55 win. While not fully happy with the way the team closed out the game in the fourth, WeBo head coach Jason Smith knew that the win did show some of the growth his team has made this season. The Stars (2-2, 1-1 in MAC) were in a similar situation in the season opener against Speedway, but ultimately lost the game in overtime. On Tuesday, they did enough to win. "It was very, very ugly, but we showed growth, because this is exactly what happened against Speedway," Smith said. "We were up 12-15 points, and they started crawling back and we lost in overtime. So the positive I can see is how we were able to salvage it." Western Boone seemed to be cruising in the third quarter, when Jaden Latham scored to give them a 50-33 lead with 55 seconds to go in the quarter. But North Putnam scored the final four points of the third to get within 13, then the first five of the fourth to get within eight. WeBo stemmed the tide a little bit, getting back up by 10 twice, but a 10-2 run from the Cougars brought them within two with 1:53 to go. The Stars were their own worst enemy throughout the fourth, going 3-of-12 from the field with four turnovers as the Cougars came back. Five of the misses were looks in the paint, something that hasn't been an issue for the Stars throughout the early parts of the season. freestar "The refs were letting us play on both sides of the court, and I think the physicality got to us mentally," Smith said. "We missed some shots that we normally make because of that, and then we got down because we weren't getting the calls. That's something we have to adjust to in the moment, and we have to be able to be just as physical and score through the contact." North Putnam actually had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead in the final 90 seconds, but turned it over. Coming out of a timeout, Western Boone was able to execute a play to get a layup for Beau Sawyer to push the lead to four, then got another stop that eventually led to two free throws from Luke LaGrange to get the lead to six and seal the win. Sawyer and LaGrange each had 17 for the Stars, who also got nine points from Quinn Westerfeld (all in the second quarter). LaGrange is averaging 17.3 points in the last three games. "He is one of the guys we need to rely on energy wise," Smith said. "He does a great job of diving on the floor, creating havoc, things like that. He got in some foul trouble against Speedway, which was part of the reason we couldn't close it out. So him being aggressive, but also being smart about it is huge for us." The Stars trailed by one at the end of the first quarter, and trailed by one midway through the second quarter. But the Stars closed the half on a 12-0 run, including a half-court buzzer-beater from Westerfeld, to go into the locker room up 32-21. They slowly beat the lead up to 18 in the third before the late North Putnam charge. "We had much more energy in our press," Smith said of the middle quarter success. "I was trying to find a defense that would get us more energy because we were dead to start the game. So we finally picked up our energy, and we're at our best when we're creating turnovers and creating havoc and forcing the other team into some crazy shots to get us into transition. We were able to do that for a 5-6 minute stretch there." Jayce Monnett had 19 to lead North Putnam. Owen Query had 15 and Chase Barber had 10 for the Cougars. Western Boone hosts Southmont on Friday night. "We are going to focus on our energy and intensity," Smith said. "It sounds weird to say, but we are kind of going to let them figure it out. There were a lot of times I was signal calling exactly where to go and what to do, and I hate doing that. Our guys need to see that on their own and just do it. That's the kind of thing we will work on in practice the next few days." Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.