Also at home last Friday night, both Greenwood teams bounced back to notch their second conference victories of the season. Little Rock Catholic visited H.B. Stewart Arena for Greenwood’s 2013 basketball homecoming. Though one of four 7A schools on the conference schedule, the private Catholic high school doesn’t strike fear in the hearts of hard court opponents as do some of the other Little Rock schools. The Lady Bulldogs won handily in a blowout, while the GHS boys pulled away in the second half for a double-digit win.
The girls game wasn’t much of a contest, as Greenwood raced out to an 18-4 first period lead, sparked by a 7-0 run to start the game. A quartet of three-pointers in the first half by Williams, Haleigh Henson, Hartness, and Allie Barnes helped the Lady Bulldogs offensively, as they kept up the pressure, outscoring the Belles 23-11 in the second quarter for a 41-15 halftime margin. A 16-5 scoring advantage in the third period allowed Coach Reeves to use his bench extensively, and the starters saw little or no playing time in the fourth quarter. Some of the girls were even excused from the bench early to prepare themselves for the homecoming ceremony that was held following the game.
When the buzzer sounded, the scoreboard read 61-24 in Greenwood’s favor. Megan Hartness led the scoring for the Lady Bulldogs with 16 points, following by Henson with 11 and Williams with 10 points. Senior Sammy Richards added six points, senior Allie Barnes had five points, while senior Mikayla Roberts and sophomore Sarah Elkins had four points each off the bench.
“Our kids are putting out the effort and doing everything we’re asking them to [do]”, said Coach Reeves following the game. “After this first round of conference [games], we know we have to step up another level,” he added. “We worked hard on our rebounding and intensity the last two days. [Senior] Mariko [McCraney] went in and got four offensive rebounds in that one quarter, and it’s goo to get offensive rebounds out of our guard play. Both offensive and defensive rebounds we have really stressed the last couple of days,” said the coach.
In the boys game, Catholic didn’t score for the first four minutes, while Greenwood got a three-pointer by Evan Lensing to open the scoring, and led 10-0 before the Rockets made their first points from the free throw line. An Ethan Clark offensive rebound and put back made the score 12-2 at the 1:50 mark, as the Bulldogs built a 16-5 margin after one period.
But the wheels came off the wagon offensively in the second quarter, as Greenwood went scoreless for nearly the entire period. Turnovers, poor shooting, and bad luck contributed to the scoring drought, which was finally broken by an Ethan Clark dunk with just 12 seconds left. In the meantime, the Rockets cut the Greenwood halftime lead to just five points at 18-13.
Little Rock Catholic continued to apply pressure in the opening minutes of the third period, tying the game at 20-all. But senior guard Drew Caple responded with a three-pointer that led to an 11-0 scoring run by the Bulldogs, pushing their lead to double-digits at 31-20 halfway through the period. After Caple’s trey, Colton McEvoy scored on a driving layup, followed by consecutive three-points by Lensing and Caple again. The Catholic bench called for an immediate timeout.
When play resumed, the Rockets scored five straight points to cut the lead to six points, but baskets by Clark and McEvoy pushed it back to a 35-25 GHS advantage. The Rockets scored the final basket of the period and trailed by eight points heading into the final eight minutes of play. But that was as close as they would get, as the Bulldogs pulled away in the fourth quarter, sparked by a pair of baskets from senior Austin Harris off the bench. The final was 53-36 in Greenwood’s favor.
Caple led the scoring with 15 points, including four three-pointers in the game. Clark added 14 points, McEvoy 12 points, and Lensing had eight points. The victory evened the Bulldogs’ season mark at 9-9 overall, and improved their conference record to 2-3.
After the game, GHS head coach Brian Martin talked about his team’s lack of scoring and the turnovers in the second period. “The first quarter was great,” he said. “We got some easy shots and some good looks. Then the second quarter – on top of the turnovers – we missed a lot of open shots.”
As for the third period scoring contribution from guards Drew Caple and Evan Lensing, Martin said, “We don’t want Lensing or Caple to hesitate if they are open. That’s one way we score, is those two guys hitting open looks. We didn’t want them to rush a perimeter shot. [But] they got going and spread [the lead] back open. [Catholic] never really threatened from that point on.”
Both Greenwood teams hit the road this past Tuesday night, playing at Class 6A Russellville. They will be home this coming Friday night to host Class 7A Conway. Both are 7A/6A Conference foes. This week’s games will also complete the first half of the league schedule, with seven games remaining.