HENRY – All season, the Putnam County girls basketball team has relied on its zone defense.

But on Monday, for the first time this season, the Panthers had to go away from their defensive strategy in the first half.

Henry-Senachwine/Lowpoint-Washburn’s Brynna Anderson drained a 3-pointer to pull the Mallards within five points with 4:46 left in the first half, leading PC coach Jared Sale to call a timeout.

The Panthers switched to man-to-man defense and held Henry to three points the rest of the half as Putnam County pulled away for a 58-40 victory in a Tri-County Conference game.

“I thought our intensity ratcheted up a little bit. We were able to get some turnovers, get out and run and take some easy ones. When we made that switch, I think it kind of sparked everything on the offensive end.”

—  Jared Sale, Putnam County coach

“Give them credit because they shot really well in the first half and forced us out of the zone,” Sale said. “That’s the first time all year we’ve gotten out of the zone in the first half. They had a bunch of 3s and we felt like we had to, so we made a little bit of an adjustment there.”

The Mallards got on the board before the game clock started. Putnam County was assessed a technical foul for marking a wrong player in the book, and Henry’s Rachel Eckert hit both free throws.

However, the Panthers quickly retook the lead on a 3-pointer from Ava Hatton followed by back-to-back baskets by Maggie Richetta, a 3 from Gabby Doyle and a pull-up jumper by Hatton for a 12-4 advantage.

The Panthers continued to play well offensively throughout the first half, building a 39-21 halftime lead. The 39 points nearly matched PC’s per game average of 43.8 entering Monday’s game.

Hatton hit 4 of 8 3-pointers and scored 17 of her 19 points in the first half, while Richetta had eight of her game-high 20 in the first half.

Doyle drained three 3s and finished with 11 points for PC (12-3, 6-1 TCC).

“Ava was obviously on fire,” Sale said. “She came out and hit a ton of shots. She was able to get to the rim. She hit a couple 3s. We were able to pound it in to Maggie. That kind of got us going.”

While Putnam County was hitting 48.3% of its shots, including 42.9% from 3, the Mallards managed to hang around early with hot shooting from behind the arc.

Eckert hit a 3 in the first quarter and Anderson sank three shots from behind the arc in the second quarter as the Mallards, who were without their best player in Kaitlyn Anderson due to injury, closed an 11-point deficit with 6:21 left in the second quarter down to five points with 4:46 left.

“I felt like our fight and our heart was really good,” Henry coach Erik Greenwood said. “We knew she was going to be out so we had a week to prepare. Our message to our kids was to come out and fight, there’s shots available to go out and take advantage. I’m proud of them.

“We had a couple days (of practice) and we just really worked and stayed focused on trying to be consistent on (shooting). I feel like some of the kids who were putting in that work, it paid off and those were the kids who were knocking some down.”

After Brynna Anderson’s third 3 of the quarter, Sale called the timeout to make the change to man. PC limited Henry to just three free throws the rest of the half.

“When we went to man, it helped a lot because zone just wasn’t working,” Richetta said. “They were just hitting a lot of 3s. When we went to man, it helped us out.”

Meanwhile, Hatton drained a 3 to start Putnam County’s 16-3 closing run.

“I thought our intensity ratcheted up a little bit,” Sale said. “We were able to get some turnovers, get out and run and take some easy ones. When we made that switch, I think it kind of sparked everything on the offensive end.”

Brynna Anderson knocked down four 3s and led the Mallards (3-9, 0-7) with 13 points, while Lauren Harbison added 10 points.

Greenwood said Kaitlyn Anderson may return for the Earlville tournament Dec. 26-28.

“We’re improving,” Greenwood said. “We’re a young team. We have four freshmen, two sophomores, two juniors and one senior. We’re getting a little bit better. Hopefully, we’re going to get over the hump. I was thinking we could get to seven or eight wins. We have three, so I think that’s still in the ballpark for us.”