With emotions high in part to the Hall of Fame night in Granville, Putnam County came out firing in the first quarter and used that to come away with a 55-42 victory over Lowpoint-Washburn in Tri-County action Friday.

The Wildcats came out in a man-to-man defense and the Panthers took advantage of it immediately as Traxton Mattingly hit a pair of free throws and then a 3-pointer to give Putnam County a 7-2 edge early on.

Juan Ramirez had a stick back before a 3-pointer from Jacob Furar. The Panthers didn’t stop there though as Ramirez hit a turnaround shot in the paint before Gavin McDaniel converted a power move in the lane to cap off a 16-0 run to make it 16-2 Panthers.

“We came into it a little ramped up with Hall of Fame night,” Panthers coach Jared Sale said. “We were feeling good and hit some shots, but I want to see us play with that passion for 32 minutes. We are a good defensive team, but I want to see that on both ends for 32 minutes.”

Isiah Harrison hit a pull-up jumper and then the free throw to end the drought for the Wildcats, but Mattingly immediately drained another 3-pointer just before the buzzer to give the Panthers a 19-5 lead after the first eight minutes.

From that point on the game was stop and go as the fouls piled up for the Panthers, who never got back into that same rhythm.

Mattingly started the second quarter with his third 3-pointer of the game, but the Wildcats defense tightened up and didn’t allow another point the rest of the way for Mattingly.

McDaniel found Alan Castro for a layup as part of a 10-0 Putnam County run that pushed the lead to 26-5.

On an out of bounds play, Evan Schumacher hit a layup for the Wildcats before Logan Youngman hit a turnaround jumper to make it 28-9.

The Panthers got a nice scoop shot from Castro before Braden Bickerman had a great drive and layup to push the Panthers lead to 36-18.

Lowpoint-Washburn got a much needed 3-pointer from Tristan Burle to make it 34-17 Panthers heading into halftime.

Both teams came out sluggish in the third quarter. Youngman fought through a double team from Putnam County for a layup, but Putnam County responded with a 3-pointer from Bickerman that pushed the lead to 41-21.

The Wildcats began to fight back as Schumacher got a stickback and Youngman hit a hook shot to make it 41-25 heading into the final quarter.

Schumacher got a rebound and then a layup for the Wildcats, but Putnam County on back-to-back possessions got a nice pass from Ramirez to Castro for baskets to push the lead to 47-29.

“Castro is kind of our glue guy,” Sale said. “He does a lot of different things for us and doesn’t really get rattled and Juan Ramirez found him a few times tonight when we needed a bucket.”

Youngman hit a 15-foot jumper before Evan Schumacher and Aiden Schumacher got back-to-back steals for the Wildcats that made it 47-37 Putnam County.

Shortly after that, Bickerman hit a much needed 3-pointer and then Johnathon Stunkel scored a fast break layup to push the lead back to 52-37.

Lowpoint-Washburn hit just 6-of-16 from the foul line as the Panthers came away with the 55-42 victory.

“I take full responsibility for the start of the game,” L-W coach Craig Culp said. “We came out in a man-to-man defense and Putnam County was hot. We are better in a 2-1-2 (zone) and we switched back to that and I thought we were even the rest of the way if not a little ahead at times, but I don’t think we were quite ready to play that defense, but I’m very proud of how the kids responded after the first quarter.”

Bickerman led Putnam County (6-14, 1-2) with 13 points, while Ramirez had 12 and Mattingly finished with 11.

Lowpoint-Washburn (6-11, 0-3) was led by Evan Schumacher with 20 points and Youngman with 10.