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It was the same thing again on Monday night, as nearly every player on the Almont team came out shooting blanks in the first half against Macomb Lutheran North.

That is, every player on Almont except for Chanahl Putnam.

Putnam scored a game-high 29 points, including 16 in the first-half, as she helped her team overpower the Chargers, 61-43, on their homecourt on Monday. With the win, Almont (21-0) moves on to face Capac at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

Putnam, who is averaging 16 points a game this season, matched that average in the first sixteen minutes of the game. According to the senior, her team is traditionally a slow-starting team.

"The third quarter is usually our best quarter," Putnam said. "We started out slow again, but we usually get hot and start making some shots."

"Chanahl's just such a great player," Almont coach Steve Edwards said. "We run the floor so well, and when Chanahl gets going, she's a tough player to stop. She's so quick when she has the ball. And she sees the court really well.

"She really makes this offense go."

In the early going of the game, it looked as if the Raiders propensity for the slow start might finally cost them a game.

Lutheran North controlled the game in the early minutes of the first quarter. The Chargers used their height advantage to control the early flow of the game, taking a 9-4 after the first four minutes of play were complete.

That's when Putnam took over.

Over the last four minutes of the opening quarter, Putnam scored five points, including a three-pointer at the 1:43 mark of the frame, which gave her team an 11-10 lead at the conclusion of one.

A lead that her team would not relinquish for the remainder of the game.

"That's when we started to heat up a little bit," Putnam said. "We just wanted to try to score some baskets and get the lead back."

Putnam was at it again in the second.

The 5-6 senior poured in 11 points in the quarter, keying her team to a 24-17 lead at halftime.

"That's what Chanahl can do," Edwards said. "She can score points in bunches when she can find a way to get to the bucket.

"She's been doing it like that for four years now."

In the third, the offensive lapse that the majority of the Almont offense had been in finally came to an end. Of course, Putnam kept up what she had already been doing.

Putnam added 11 points in the third, as she helped her team to a 27-15 scoring advantage over the Chargers in the quarter. Yet, for all the points Putnam had in the third, she wasn't even her team's leading scorer in the quarter.

Fellow senior phenom Lindsey Yaklin finally found her scoring touch in the third, as the 5-4 senior hit four straight three-pointers to help her team put the game out of reach of the Chargers.

Yaklin ended the game with 16 points.

"(Lindsey's) normally good for at least one three-pointer a quarter," Edwards said. "But when she gets shooting, she can hit from about anywhere.

"Once again, a girl who's been doing this for me for the last four years."

Since Edwards has been coaching this particular duo for four years now, it would seem like he would be used to the slow starts from his team.

"We just have to play our style of game and watch what is coming up next," Edwards said. "We just have to take it one game at a time from here on out.

"I just hope we can keep winning."

Andrew Selich is Sports Editor at The County Press. He can be reached at (810) 664-0811 ext. 8124 or andrew.selich@lapeergroup.com