The Greenwood Lady Bulldogs have found the going tough this season after winning back-to-back 6A state titles and losing their entire starting lineup to graduation. But they remain alive and in the running for a post-season playoff berth as they approach the halfway mark of their league schedule.
So far, the GHS girls (8-11, 2-4) have posted a 1-2 record in the all-important 6A games against Alma, Russellville, and Siloam Springs. Ironically, they have lost both 6A contests at home and won their only 6A game on the road at Alma. They hope to reverse that trend in the second half of the conference season. This past Tuesday night they hosted Van Buren.
Van Buren
The Lady Pointers (15-4) were on fire from behind the three-point line this past Tuesday night. They hit seven treys in the first half, building a 32-18 halftime lead, then added seven more threes in the second half to quash any Greenwood hopes of a late rally.
The teams were tied at 7-7 at the 2:20 mark of the opening period, and Greenwood even took a brief 10-8 lead on a three-pointer by Kaitlyn Summit. But a pair of Van Buren treys and two free throws put the visitors up 16-10 after eight minutes, a lead they would never relinquish.
Five more long distance bombs in the third quarter sealed the deal for the visitors, who led 56-27 after three periods before invoking the mercy rule in the final eight minutes. Two more Van Buren threes in the fourth quarter pushed the final score to 64-32.
The Lady Bulldogs had balanced scoring, although no Greenwood player reached double figures. Erin Black had seven points, Kyiah Julian and Kaitlyn Summit scored six points each, and Ashley Rozell added five points.
"We've got to play hard the whole game," said Head Coach Clay Reeves after the loss. "We've got to do a better job of moving on defense and getting in the passing lanes. Each player has to do one or two more things a little bit better. We work on it every day, and we're going to keep working on it. We're going to keep driving as hard as we can."
Russellville
The Lady Cyclones (15-1, 4-1) wiped out an early deficit with a 20-0 scoring run against the Lady Bulldogs, and it was enough to notch a 46-35 win last Friday night at H.B. Stewart Arena. The Russellville girls finished 3-0 against 6A opponents in the first half of the league schedule, and currently hold the top seed in the state tournament, which they will host in March.
Maddie Goodner canned three early baskets and helped her teammates build an 8-2 lead 4:27 into the first quarter. But Russellville took over after that, scoring the last eight points of the opening period and three straight baskets to open the second quarter, all of them off offensive rebounds.
“I probably called three straight timeouts,” said Coach Reeves. “I told them I was going to use them all until we got a rebound. We know that should be one of our strengths, and we just didn’t do it. Sometimes, not scoring affects your rebounding.”
Russellville had a huge 37-17 advantage on the boards, including 14 offensive rebounds. “They killed us on offensive rebounds the first half," said Reeves. "We’ve got to do a better job of that.”
Sara Reeves hit a lone free throw for Greenwood to end Russellville's first half run. “We didn’t shoot the ball very well," said the coach. “Our kids know that sometime [we’re] not going to shoot very well, but our defense and rebounding has to keep us in it. The defense the whole first half – I just didn’t have us in the right spots most of the time. What I thought should be working, wasn’t working.”
Russellville led 20-9 at the half and was at least 10 points ahead until the final minute of the game, after Greenwood finished with an 8-3 run. Goodner paced Greenwood with 11 points.
Alma
The Lady Bulldogs used two separate 12-point scoring runs in the first half to coast to a much-needed 56-35 victory at Alma on January 19th. After being injured a week earlier against Siloam Springs, senior point guard Maddie Goodner returned to the lineup and sparked Greenwood with a pair of three-pointers in the first quarter, and two more in the second quarter. She finished with a total of 19 points, eight steals, three assists, and three rebounds.
Goodner's two first-quarter bombs led a 12-0 run, capped by another trey from Kaitlyn Summitt, pushing Greenwood’s lead to 14-1 at the 1:48 mark. “We came out and shot well,” said Coach Reeves. “We know there’s going to be times where we don’t shoot well, [but] we just have to keep playing defense and rebounding. That will keep [us] in the game until [we] start hitting again. We’re still learning."
Alma cut the deficit to 16-5 after a quarter, and were still in the game at the 5:30 mark of the second stanza, trailing, 22-13. But that's when the second 12-0 GHS run took place, expanding the Lady Bulldog’s lead to an insurmountable, 34-13.
Goodner and freshman Kyiah Julian started the second scoring run with consecutive three-pointers. Julian added two more buckets in the run, and Sara Reeves scored inside off a assist from Goodner. Julian had 15 points in the victory.
“If the guards can shoot, the posts are going to get good looks, and if the posts can shoot, the guards are going to get good looks,” Reeves said. “I thought we were well balanced inside and out, which is great for our kids. It makes [us] hard to stop some nights.”
Greenwood took a 34-17 lead into the half and opened the third quarter like they might blow the game open with Ashley Rozell drilling a trey, and Goodner adding a conventional three-point play for a 40-17 lead. But Alma put together a 9-0 run of its own and eventually got within, 40-26, before the Lady Bulldogs rallied to close out the win in the fourth quarter.
Conway
With Maddie Goodner still unavailable due to injury, the Lady Bulldogs were shorthanded and overmatched by Class 7A Conway on Friday, January 15th, losing on the road to the talented Lady Wampas Cats, 82-27. The Conway girls have lost only once this season and are the top-ranked girls' team in the state.
“Conway has a really good team,” said Coach Reeves, "and we turned the ball over too many times. They’re probably the quickest team we’ve played overall. You can’t show what they do in practice. Some of that you have to get as the game goes along, and our players did get better."
Greenwood junior Kaitlyn Summitt scored 11 points to lead the Lady 'Dogs offensively.