The Greenwood Lady Bulldogs’ basketball team, hoping to earn a spot in the state title game for the second consecutive year and the third time in four seasons, opened their 2020-21 campaign before Thanksgiving with a pair of signature wins over Class 5A power Lake Hamilton and Class 6A North Little Rock.
It’s all part of Head Coach Clay Reeves’ annual plan to pit his players against some of the toughest teams in the state. Covid-19 has actually made that strategy easier this season, eliminating all non-conference tournaments, providing more opportunities to schedule additional home games and road trips against selected top-notch competition.
North Little Rock
Four-year lettermen Kinley Fisher and Ally Sockey led the offense on the road at North Little Rock the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. The two senior guards combined for 43 points and 11 takeaways to power the GHS girls to a 20-point (58-38) victory at Charging Wildcats Arena. Two other senior mainstays, Shea Goodwin and Haven Clements, combined for 10 points, while sophomore Madie Cartwright added five points.
Relatively quiet before halftime, Fisher scored 17 of her game-high 22 points in the second half, while pulling down five rebounds and making five steals. Greenwood (2-0) leveraged a huge third quarter to break open what had become a tight contest. Sockey added 21 points, including 10 over the final 16 minutes, adding six steals and four rebounds.
"Those two were big all game," said Coach Reeves after the game. "Kinley always scores a lot for us, and that's what we look at her for, and Ally always brings a lot of energy to our defense, causing turnovers and making things happen. She's really picked up her scoring, too, which is exactly what we need. We've got some really good scorers that are actually not scoring right now, but it's a good thing that others are. Plus, they're finding different ways to contribute."
One of those players who always seems to find a way to contribute is Haven Clements, who helped defend inside against North Little Rock’s intimidating frontcourt duo of Amauri Williams and Destine Duckworth. Clements scored just four points in the game but grabbed eight rebounds and had three takeaways. “Our players did a great job on defense,” said Reeves.
Neither team shot the ball well in a low-scoring first half, which ended with the visitors on top, 17-11. The Lady Wildcats shot just 28% (14 of 50) for the game, including a dismal four of 27 in the first half, due in no small part to Greenwood’s smothering defense. Despite having a significant size advantage inside with the 6-4 Williams, North Little Rock found the GHS zone defense almost impenetrable, especially in the first half.
Defensively, the Lady Bulldogs collapsed on Williams whenever teammates tried to feed the ball to her inside. And when North Little Rock couldn't get the ball down low, Fisher and Sockey were disrupting things out on the perimeter. It’s a formula Reeves and company will likely employ all season against bigger teams.
"I ask our players sometimes which defense they feel most comfortable starting in, and they wanted to start in the one we started in [tonight]," revealed Reeves. "Then we kind of switched things up back-and-forth as the game went along. I give them credit for that because I would've started out in another one."
North Little Rock went almost six minutes between baskets in the first quarter and the Lady Wildcats didn't hit their second field goal of the second period until Williams scored inside with less than a minute left before halftime. Luckily for the home team, Greenwood’s shooting wasn’t much better at seven of 27, keeping the game close at the intermission.
But the Lady Bulldogs took charge in the third stanza, ignited by a steal and lay-up by senior guard Shea Goodwin that started a 7-0 run, allowing Greenwood to build a 29-16 lead midway through the quarter. The Lady Bulldogs led 36-22 with 2:09 left in the period, but free throws by Fisher fueled another run (8-0), leading to a 22-point GHS advantage, putting the game out of reach for the Lady Wildcats. Greenwood led by as much as 58-30 in the fourth quarter before North Little Rock scored the game's last eight points.
"Our girls competed all night," said Coach Reeves, whose Lady Bulldogs were 20-of-52 shooting (38.4%) for the game. "I thought the first half was really close, but we had a good third quarter and extended the lead. We made a few shots, got some turnovers, and limited [North Little Rock’s] second-shot opportunities. We didn't give them a lot of transition points either. So I thought we did a good job overall and played extremely hard. It was a physical game.”
Lake Hamilton
On Saturday, November 21st, the GHS girls opened their regular season schedule at home against a good Lake Hamilton team that has dominated its conference the past couple of seasons. But the Lady Bulldogs outscored the Lady Wolves in each of the first three quarters to build a double-digit lead before the visitors rallied in the waning minutes to close the final gap to seven points. The home team led by 20 points early in the fourth quarter and won 66-59, but the game wasn’t really that close.
“They’ve won their conference the last two years,” said Reeves of the Lady Wolves, then added, “We got a 20-point lead, and sometimes when you have a [big] lead you try to cruise a little bit, and it allowed them to come back and score some points. There are lessons to be learned from every game, and we [learned] we’ve just got to keep playing.”
Greenwood led 17-12 after eight minutes and 36-25 at the break. The Lady Bulldogs added five more points to their lead in the third quarter, outscoring the Lady Wolves by a 12-7 margin for a 48-32 advantage. Lake Hamilton then rallied to win the fourth period, 27-18, but it wasn’t enough to prevent a loss.
The GHS girls had five players reach double figures in scoring, led by Ally Sockey’s 17 points. Freshman guard Anna Trusty offered a glimpse of her potential with 16 points, while junior guard Abby Summitt contributed 12 points. Mady Cartwright scored 11 points and Kinley Fisher added 10 points to round out the balanced scoring effort.
Asked about the freshman’s performance, Coach Reeves said, “She can really score. She’s tall and long and has great reach and some great instincts on offense and defense. It’s a learning curve playing on the high school level for some of our younger players. But they will figure it out, because we’ve still got a long way to go in our non-conference schedule, and they will continue to get better.”
Benefit Game
Before opening their regular season slate, the Lady Bulldogs hosted the Cabot girls a week earlier (Nov. 14) at H.B. Stewart Arena, winning easily, 70-40, over the 6A Lady Panthers. Greenwood was led offensively by Kinley Fisher’s 22 points, followed by Mady Cartwright with 11, the only other GHS player in double figures. Ally Sockey added nine points, Anna Trusty eight points, and Abby Summitt seven points.
The contest wasn’t competitive after the first few minutes, as Greenwood’s aggressive style of play was too much for the Lady Panthers. The GHS girls led 24-7 after one period and 46-21 at the intermission. Greenwood outscored Cabot 20-10 in the third quarter and coasted through the fourth stanza for the 30-point victory.
“Our kids had been practicing all summer and fall, and they’re always ready to play at the first of the year and have a lot of energy,” said Coach Reeves of the win over Cabot. “We played hard and aggressive and got up and down the floor. Our defense gave [Cabot] a lot of trouble, which gave us a lot of turnovers.”
Two games into the regular season, Reeves said, “We’re still working on our [team] identity and chemistry and understanding what everybody is going to do, and that will continue.”
Asked again about the tough non-conference schedule, the coach said, “The only way to get to the top is by playing the best of the best, and our kids are doing that, and that’s going to make us a lot better and stronger when we get to conference play. Our goal is at the end of the season to win the 5A state championship.”
That quest continues this week with two more games against quality 6A opponents Conway and Bentonville. The Lady Bulldogs travel to Central Arkansas on Tuesday to face the Lady Wampus Cats before hosting the Lady Tigers of Bentonville on Thursday at H.B. Stewart Arena. Thursday’s action will tip off with junior varsity play at 5 p.m. followed by the varsity contest. Greenwood will also host Fayetteville next Tuesday, December 8th.