It was a wild and fun ride for the Lady Bulldogs and their fans this past basketball season, but the young and talented GHS girls came up one game short of achieving their goal of winning a state title, losing to the Jonesboro Lady Hurricane, 57-44, on March 10th at Bank of the Ozarks Arena in Hot Springs.
But don’t feel too bad for them. Head Coach Clay Reeves and his Lady Bulldogs will be back to the title game soon enough, losing just one senior off its 18-girl roster, while getting re-enforcements from a ninth-grade program that went 16-5 and won a regional championship.
Reeves relied heavily on five freshman during the season – guards Ally Sockey, Haven Clements, Shea Goodwin, Kinley Fisher, and forward Stormi Baggs – along with the team’s only senior, Kaila Cartwright, juniors Kyiah Julian and Susannah Stein, and sophomores Jaelin Glass, Angela Price, and Harley Terry.
The team opened with a tough regular season schedule, featuring several Class 7A schools, among other strong teams, and lost their first four games. But as the freshman gained more experience and earned more playing time, the Lady Bulldogs won 22 of their last 28 games to finish with a 22-10 overall mark. They won 11 straight before falling to Jonesboro in the title game.
As for the championship game, poor shooting plagued the GHS girls, who hit just four of 32 three-point shot attempts and eight of 26 two-point shots. They hit just 12.5% of their three-pointers and 31% from inside the arc. Overall, they shot just under 21% for the game and hit 16 of 22 free throw attempts.
Jonesboro didn’t shoot it great either, 30% from long distance (3/10) and 38% from two-point range, but it was enough. The Lady ‘Canes also hit 20 of 35 free throws and won the battle of the boards, 52 to 35. Greenwood forced 21 Jonesboro turnovers to just 13 by the Lady Bulldogs.
Trailing early, Greenwood rallied to cut its halftime deficit to 28-24, at one point erasing a nine-point Jonesboro lead. As it turned out, Greenwood’s only lead (3-2) came just 1:17 into the first quarter on Kaila Cartwright’s opening three-pointer. The Lady Bulldogs did tie the score briefly with 2:06 left in the half.
But it didn’t take long for the Jonesboro girls to re-assert themselves in the third quarter and rebuild their original nine-point lead at 35-26. In the quarter, Jonesboro outscored Greenwood 12-6, with the Lady Bulldogs missing all seven three-point tries.
Leading by 10 points (40-30) at the start of the fourth quarter, Jonesboro never allowed Greenwood to make a serious run over the final eight minutes, and won the 6A title game, 57-44.
For Greenwood, Kinley Fisher had nine points and five steals; Ally Sockey had eight points and seven rebounds; Kaila Cartwright, Haven Clements, and Jaeline Glass had five points each; while Harley Terry, Angela Price, and Shea Goodwin all had four points each.
In his post-game interview session, Coach Reeves talked about the game itself, showed understandable pride over his team’s accomplishments, and looked ahead to what the future might hold for his young Lady Bulldogs.
“With the schedule we played and the teams we played, we’ve been behind pretty often earlier in the year,” said the coach. “[But] our kids never blinked their eyes until that [final] buzzer went off. They gave a great effort all [game]. I’m proud of our kids.
“We usually shoot the ball really well against zones and man to man,” said Reeves. “We got some good open looks early. We stood there for a little while and weren’t quite as aggressive off the drive as we should have been. That would have allowed us to get a [few] more shots inside. We probably should have [gone] to our motion offense a little bit earlier, and that’s my fault for not getting us in that situation earlier.
“I’m extremely proud of our team and what [we] accomplished this year,” Reeves said. “Our kids gave a great effort the whole night, one of their best efforts on defense, going after the ball and rebounding and hustling. Our biggest struggle was hitting shots.
“Our kids are confident shooters,” said the coach. “They’re great shooters. The effort was there. We just couldn’t “effort” them in the basket.”
“They just didn’t go in,” he said. “Jonesboro shot the ball a little bit better than we did, but effort and heart and character – everything I expected [from] our team was there.”
Reeves was asked about the loss of junior Kyiah Julian, the team’s top scorer and floor leader, who suffered a season-ending knee injury just before the start of the post-season.
“We played a lot of kids all year, and I think that’s what helped us down the stretch,” said Reeves, who has already won seven state titles, including four at Greenwood. “We lost Kyiah – one of our really good players – but the other kids stepped up and took up the slack. They were always ready.
“Kyiah has been there for all the other players, cheering them on. I know it was killing her sitting behind the bench [today] instead of on the bench,” he said.
“But we’ve got a great team. The future looks good, as long as [the players] keep working hard and staying after it. They could be back here [the title game] several more times.”