Lady Bulldogs 65 - Harrison 38 Bulldogs 61 - Harrison 59
Lady Bulldogs 74 - Alma 43 Bulldogs 45 - Alma 62
The final 5A West Conference season for Greenwood High School basketball opened at Harrison last Friday (January 6th) with a pair of road wins for the 'Dogs and Lady 'Dogs. The GHS girls followed up their victory over the Lady Goblins by easily topping Alma in the home conference opener at H.B. Stewart Arena this past Tuesday (January 10th). Unfortunately, the GHS boys could not follow suit and lost to the Airedales. This is the last trip through the 5A West Conference for both teams. Greenwood will be moving up to the 6A classification next season.
Greenwood at Harrison
After playing even (13-13) with the Lady Goblins in the first quarter, Greenwood used a stifling defense and rode the hot shooting hand of junior guard Presleigh Atkins in rolling to a 31-18 halftime lead. The Lady Bulldogs outscored Harrison 18-5 in the second period, and Atkins would finish the game with a team-high 23 points. A 14-9 effort in the third quarter boosted the GHS advantage to a comfortable 45-27 before closing out the game with a 20-11 run in the fourth period.
The 65-38 final score was a convincing reminder of why the Lady Bulldogs are so highly ranked in the state and are expected to repeat as conference champions. Besides Atkins' 23 points to lead all scorers, no other Lady Bulldog was in double figures. Sophomore point guard Lundon Williams finished the contest with nine points, while juniors Allie Barnes and Jordan Mahon both scored seven points each. Senior forward Endsley Evans added six points.
In the boys' contest that followed, Greenwood rallied from a 12-point first half deficit to notch a hard-fought and narrow 61-60 road victory. The Bulldogs trailed 24-17 after the first eight minutes, and despite cutting the deficit to two points in the second period, went to the locker room at halftime down 42-33. But a strong second half carried the GHS boys to victory. The defense tightened and allowed only 18 points over the final 16 minutes, 13 of those coming in the third quarter. Greenwood scored 16 points in the third period and 12 in the fourth behind a balanced scoring attack.
For the Bulldogs, senior guard Ryan Lensing had 14 points and junior guard Drew Morgan duplicated that number to share the team lead in double-digit scoring. Colton McEvoy and junior Cole McAlister added eight points each, while seniorAdam Lucas had six points, junior Jansen Stein added five points, and junior Drew Caple chipped in with four points.
Alma at Greenwood
Endsley Evans carried the Lady Bulldogs offensively through the first 20 minutes of play last Friday night at home against Alma. Evans scored a game-high 25 points to lead the GHS girls to an easy 74-43 win. Greenwood netted 22 points in the first five minutes of the second half to break open a marginally close game and post a mercy-rule win. Greenwood led 18-13 after one period and 38-27 at the intermission, before hitting eight of its first nine shots in the third quarter to take charge of the contest. The Lady Bulldogs finished the third stanza with a 27-10 scoring margin and substituted freely in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Airedalettes 9-6. The win moved the GHS girls to 11-4 overall and 2-0 in 5A West Conference play.
Evans scored 11 of her 25 points during the 22-4 run that pushed the Lady Bulldogs up 60-31 with about 3:00 remaining in the third quarter. Point guard Lundon Williams added a 3-pointer and two layups off steals during the run as well, finishing the game with 10 points. Freshman guard Megan Hartness and Allie Barnes both had nine points in the game, while senior guard Allie Wilson contributed seven points and Presleigh Atkins tossed in six points.
"We talked about at half what we needed to be doing in the first half, and what we needed to correct for the second half," said GHS head coach Clay Reeves. "Our kids have been playing hard, and we've been playing a lot of kids. The key to what we've been doing is putting out a great effort, having a good attitude, and rebounding really well. We've also had five different leading scorers so far this season." But Reeves also added that his team still needs to improve, especially in the area of free throw shooting.
Alma stayed in the game with six 3-pointers in the first half, including a 30-footer at the buzzer by Haleigh Henson. But Greenwood's pressure defense forced an incredible 35 Alma turnovers, including 13 in the third quarter alone. The Lady Bulldogs also showed off their depth by using 10 players in the contest.
In the second game of the varsity doubleheader, the Alma boys used a four-minute scoring spurt in the second quarter to notch a 62-45 win over the Bulldogs. The Airedales (11-2, 2-0 5A-West) broke a 16-16 tie with a 14-0 scoring run, on the strength of three consecutive three-point plays by Gage Jensen, followed by a 3-pointer and a driving layup. Alma led 16-14 after a quarter, but Greenwood's Colton McEvoy tied the game with a fall-away jumper to open the second period. Jensen then began Alma's scoring run with a driving bucket and a free throw, as Alma took the lead for good at 19-16 with 6:29 remaining in the half. The Bulldogs failed to score again until making a three-pointer with just 30 seconds left before the intermission.
Greenwood trailed 30-19 at the break and could never recover. Alma continued to stretch its lead in the second half, outscoring the Bulldogs 24-15 in the third quarter, before coasting to the 62-45 victory. "Defense was the key," said Alma head coach Stan Flenor after the game. "We were in front of them and frustrated them a little bit. We got some key stops. We did a good job of rebounding and turning them into points. We did a lot of that in the second quarter." The Airedales hit 24 of 41 field goals for the game, including 13 of 18 in the second half. "I was certainly pleased," said Flenor. "It was a total team effort."
Obviously disappointed with the outcome, GHS head coach Brian Martin didn't have much to say following his team's lackluster performance. "The biggest spot of the game was when we had two turnovers that led to two-and-ones," he said. "We were down three with the ball. We turn it over and they go down and get fouled on the layup and make the basket. We're down six. We come down the next possession and turn it over (again). They go down and do the same thing, and we're down nine just like that. That was the story of the first half - those two possessions. Who knows, if we score on those possessions? [But] Alma did a good job of converting those turnovers into points. That got them the momentum in the game. Our transition defense gave up a couple of easy baskets and we didn't finish that quarter well."
Greenwood (11-5, 1-1) committed just one turnover in the final half, but also managed just 11 field goals in 33 shots from the floor. Drew Morgan led the team in scoring with 11 points - the only Bulldog in double digits. Ryan Lensing added nine points, Adam Lucas eight points, Drew Caple six points, Cole McAlister and Colton McEvoy four points each, and Jansen Stein three points for the game.
Both Greenwood teams were on the road this past Friday (January 13th) at Vilonia, but will return to H.B. Stewart Arena next Tuesday night, January 17th to host Siloam Springs, which will join Greenwood next season in moving up to the 6A classification. The 2012 5A West Conference schedule projects road games for Greenwood every Friday night and home games each Tuesday night for the next six weeks.