Putnam County claims first regional title since 2013-14

PERU – In front of a packed house, the No. 3-seeded Putnam County boys basketball team used a huge second half, outscoring No. 2 Midland by 20 points, to take home the Class 1A St. Bede Regional title with a 66-51 victory.

“In the second half we came out more disciplined and played better defense,” Putnam County coach Harold Fay said. “We stopped trying to jump passes and let it come to us. Offensively, we moved the ball well and got good shots and were able to knock them down. Playing in this kind of atmosphere and against a team as good as Midland, it’s a big win for us.”

The game began with Midland jumping out to an early four-point lead before Putnam County’s Austin Mattingly, who scored a game-high 26 points, went on a personal eight-point run to vault the Panthers to an 8-4 advantage.

Putnam County built its advantage to 12-9 on a pair of Jackson McDonald buckets before the Timberwolves’ Brett Smith, who scored a team-high 13 points, finished the opening quarter with a layup and 3-pointer at the horn to give Midland a 14-12 lead.

Putnam County tied the game at 16 on layups from Andrew Pyszka and Drake Smith, before the Timberwolves scored the next eight on 3 balls from Ryan Riddell and T.J. Guthman and a deuce from Brady Hattan to build a 24-18 lead with three minutes left in the half.

The Panthers cut the lead to 27-22 at halftime.

Putnam County quickly tied the game as McDonald, who scored 20 points, dropped in a layup and Pyszka drained a 3 ball.

The teams exchanged the lead in the third quarter with Mattingly leading the way for the Panthers with nine points and Midland answered with a balanced scoring attack to bring the score to 43-37 in Putnam County’s favor heading into the final period.

The Timberwolves came out with the first four points of the fourth with a 3 from Guthman to bring the score to 43-40, but Mattingly answered with a 3 of his own.

The teams traded hoops until the Panthers broke the game open with a 14-6 run, led by Mattingly and McDonald, to put the Panthers up 66-48 before the game concluded with Putnam County leaving with a 66-51 win and its first regional title since 2013-14.

“Not to take anything away from Putnam County, who played a great game tonight, but this team usually plays with more energy than we did tonight and it cost us,” Midland coach Allen Hattan said. “We missed some shots and had a few turnovers and to their credit, they took advantage of them and then it kind of snowballed on us and got away from us tonight.”

The Panthers (20-14) advance to the Woodland Sectional where they will play Chicago Fenger at 7 p.m. Wednesday.