Both Greenwood High School varsity basketball teams opened 5A West Conference play last Friday night at home against the Harrison High School Goblins and Lady Goblins. A nice crowd turned out on a chilly night at H. B. Stewart Arena to see the Class 5A girls defending state champions easily defeat the Harrison girls in the opener, 55-27. In the nightcap, the GHS boys led early, but suffered through a difficult second and third quarter en route to a 61-48 loss.
Both Greenwood teams played at least a dozen games on their pre-conference schedule, including participation in three tournaments each. The Lady Bulldogs were 8-6 coming into last Friday's contest, while the Bulldogs were 7-5 before dropping their league opener. Both head coaches said they were pleased with the progress of their respective teams in the early going, and neither admitted to any real surprises so far.
GHS girls head coach Clay Reeves appraised his team's pre-conference season by saying, "We played a lot of kids and we played several different defenses and presses to try to find out what we were going to be most successful at. We're not just one-dimensional [offensively] inside or outside, and not just one defense. I feel like we are pretty well balanced in the things we can do. Our [8-6 record] doesn't sound real good, but the quality of the teams we played helped us get ready for the conference season."
Greenwood boys coach Brian Martin, entering his second year with the Bulldogs, also spoke of what his team accomplished during the pre-conference schedule. "This team has been getting better from day one. We had some tough, close games. A few we won and a few we lost, and that's exactly what we needed going into conference [play]. The returnees are much improved from last year and we've got some sophomores that have come in and helped us. This is going to be a good team in conference, and we're just hoping to compete and get into the top four, just like everybody else."
Lady Bulldogs 55, Lady Goblins 27
The Lady Goblins led Greenwood 10-9 after one quarter as the Lady 'Dogs got off to a slow start offensively. But they more than made up for it by scoring 17 and 22 points in the second and third periods, respectively. The Lady Bulldogs led 16-15 midway through the second quarter before applying their pressure defense, which led to an impressive 35-4 scoring run over the next 14 minutes into the early part of the fourth quarter.
After leading 26-15 at the half, the hometown girls ran away to a 48-19 lead at the beginning of the final period of play. Coach Reeves pulled his starters and used mostly younger players over the final eight minutes, but still outscored the visitors 8-7. Reeves was pleased with the effort and the victory in the conference opener. "We knew there were going to be four teams at the top after tonight, and four teams that weren't," he said. "We played three really good solid quarters. We just played more people and tried to make it a little more up-tempo, and it worked out good for us tonight. Our kids took it up another notch and got after it. I'm okay with where we are at," said Reeves, "but we know we still have 13 more conference games to get through."
Only one Greenwood player reached double figures in scoring, but three others contributed significant points. Junior forward Endsley Evans topped the offensive stat chart with 20 points. She also grabbed six rebounds and blocked a pair of Harrison shot attempts. Senior forward Jessica Moudy added eight points, as did sophomore guard Presleigh Atkins. Moundy also had four boards and blocked three shots. Sophomore Sammy Richards chipped in with six points for Greenwood. The Lady Bulldogs forced Harrison to commit 21 turnovers.
Bulldogs 48, Harrison Goblins 61
In the boys contest, the visiting Goblins won the opening tip and scored first, but Greenwood senior Billyjack Freeman responded with a three-pointer to give the Bulldogs a 3-2 advantage early in the game. They continued to hold the lead throughout the opening period and were up 7-6 at the 1:38 mark when junior guard Ryan Lensing nailed a trey to increase the GHS lead to 10-6. Neither team was able to score over the final minute-and-a-half of play.
After a Goblin trey put Harrison up 11-10 at the 6:10 mark of the second quarter, Greenwood sophomore Drew Morgan scored to put the Bulldogs back on top, 12-11. However, it would be the last time in the game the Bulldogs would have the scoring edge. Harrison continued to outscore the 'Dogs for the remainder of the quarter and led 21-18 at the intermission, although Greenwood did rally from a 21-12 deficit with just over three minutes left in the half, scoring the final six points of the period to keep themselves within striking distance.
But as the contest resumed in the third quarter, the Goblins got a three-pointer to open play, boosting their lead to 24-18. The Bulldogs got baskets from senior Chris Caudle, junior Braden Suter, along with Lensing and Freeman, but it wasn't enough to prevent Harrison from taking a double-digit advantage into the final period, leading 43-30.
The Bulldogs tried to come back in the fourth quarter, cutting the Harrison lead to just four points, 50-46, after forcing a turnover and a basket by Ryan Lensing around the 3:00 mark. But the visitors put the game away at the free throw line, hitting six consecutive charity shots down the stretch to increase their final margin of victory back to double digits.
"Giving up 22 points in the third quarter, your not going to beat anybody in the league giving up that many points in a quarter," said Coach Martin after the disappointing loss. "It's just too big of a hole. We fought back and had a chance to win the ball game. It was just a matter of making a couple of shots. But they made the plays in the last four minutes, and we didn't. But I was proud of the effort and we can build on that. Harrison is a good team and they were the better team tonight. We know we've got to hit shots to win in this league. We hit some, but we weren't consistent enough to beat a good team."