On Tuesday, November 24th, the Greenwood Lady Bulldogs traveled to Fort Smith Southside for the official opening of the 2009-2010 season against the Class 7A Lady Rebels. But regardless of how that game turns out, the GHS girls are preparing themselves for a run at the 5A West Conference title, hoping to win their first league crown for head coach Clay Reeves and assistant coach Ronnie Williams. Reeves is beginning his seventh season at Greenwood and returns a nice nucleus from last year's squad that finished 21-9 and earned a trip to the post-season with a second place finish in the 5A West (11-3).
The coaches got their first look at live competition last week when Greenwood hosted Mena in an exhibition game to benefit the Arkansas Activities
Association. The Lady Bulldogs jumped out to a big lead, outscoring the visitors 18-4 in the first period, and led 30-15 at the intermission. But Mena rallied somewhat in the second half, outscoring the GHS girls 15-14 in the third period and 22-18 over the final eight minutes before falling to Greenwood by a final score of 62-52.
Junior forward Jessica Moudy led the Lady Bulldogs in scoring with 16 points. Newcomer Endsley Evans, a 5-10 sophomore forward, added 15 points, and senior guard Lynsey Turner pitched in with 13 points. Senior forward Lacy Cook and senior guard Rebel Clay added six points each. Moudy, Turner, Cook, and Clay, along with senior forward Sarah Lenzen, are five players who return this season with a great deal of experience - a valuable quality the Lady Bulldogs will need to navigate the always tough 5A West Conference grind.
Following the Mena game, Coach Reeves analyzed his team's performance and spoke of the prospects for the upcoming season. "We played our game last night with Mena," said Reeves, "and I feel like we've got a good inside - outside game. We've just got to keep developing that. We played well together as a team and I thought we rebounded pretty well. But right now the thing we have to work on the most is probably transition defense and half court defense.
"We've got some good quick players," said the coach. "Maybe not the overall quickness we've had, but we've [also] got a little bit more overall size than what we've had in the past. So we're having to adapt and change a few things to fit our personnel this year. We've got experience coming back, but all the kids have new roles and [we're] just developing team chemistry. I [also] think all of our sophomores bring a little bit of something. I think they are all bringing something our team needs, and they're going to contribute and get better all year long.
"We have Rebel Clay coming back this year that got a lot of experience last year. We expect her to be a good leader and take care of the ball for us at the point guard position. Then we have Lynsey Turner coming back. She's one of our quickest players and a good defender and one of our top offensive players. Jessica Moudy is coming back. She was also one of our top offensive players last year. Sarah Lenzen gives 100% effort at all times. [She's] a good rebounder and good defender, [who has] improved a lot on offense. Endsley Evans is a new sophomore that we had move in from the Kansas City area, and she did really well last night in rebounding and scoring. Those are the players right now that will probably be out there the most at this particular time, but we played 13 kids last night. Lacy Cook [also] did a great job last night in the game. But we've got a lot of players right now. I'm counting on all 13. We've got great competition, and we've got a lot of kids that contribute, and I could mention something good about all of them.
Reeves believes he has all the needed ingredients for a well-rounded team this season, with good shooters, rebounders, defenders, and a strong inside game. "We had four really good three-point shooters last year," said the coach. "Two of them graduated [but] the next two are back. We hit five [threes] last night. Jessica Moudy and Lynsey Turner are really good three point shooters. And we have some sophomores and some other kids that really shot the three [well] too.
"We've got four or five forwards that can play inside, and some play inside-out. I feel like we've got good depth inside, and we've got good depth on the perimeter right now. Two of our guards coming back have tons of experience, and we're just trying to make sure that a couple of our juniors and seniors are ready to go in for them and to fill some of those spots.
"We lost our primary ball handler from last year, but the next two kids that handled the ball right behind her are back. But Lynsey [Turner] and Rebel [Clay] have to do a little bit more because our point guard from last year graduated. They've been through all the wars and it's time for them to step up now," said the coach.
Reeves, who won three state titles and reached the finals six times in 12 years at Greenland before coming to Greenwood, also spoke of team aspirations for the 2009-10 season. "Our first goal is always to make it to the state tournament, and be successful when we get there. But our league is tough. We've won the state championship probably 10 or 12 times out of the last 14 years. Last year the state champ (Vilonia) came out of our conference and Siloam Springs was state runner-up. So we play in the toughest conference."
The coach explained that it's a long season, and team goals can't be realized until the end, saying, "[We want] to be as successful as we can, but at this point in the season it's just [about getting] better in all parts of our game and [making] progress as we go along, and hopefully be at the top of our game when we get to conference [play] in January."
As for his offensive and defensive philosophies this year, Reeves said, "I've always felt comfortable pressing a lot, running and playing up-tempo. Quick hitters, get quick shots, and get up and down the floor a lot. This year we still want to run the ball on offense and try to get easy baskets. If not, we'll usually set it up and try to get it to specific players - whoever has mismatches. We're just working on some toughness - being mentally and physically tough when adversity sets in. Our main concern right now is on the defensive end. The offense will come along as the year goes along. I've always felt like you're going to have good offensive nights and bad offensive nights, but you can control your defense and rebounding every night. It's just having the toughness to go out and do it. You can depend on that every night.
"At this point I look at us as being more of a half-court defensive team, where we've usually been full court, but it just depends on how we progress. We have enough kids to come in and play the full court at different times, but right now it's just the personnel that we have in different areas. They're all good players, but I feel like we're a little bit better in the half-court game right now. We could put players out there that could run up-tempo, but it might not be our strongest offensive team or our strongest defensive team."
Regarding the outlook for conference play, the coach was both honest and objective in his assessment. "If you look at it on paper, Siloam Springs was state runner-up last year and they have four starters back, which is sometimes good and sometimes bad. Vilonia is always competitive. Both have a lot of tradition. Central Arkansas Christian won state championships several times in Class 4A, [and] I think they'll be one of the top teams in the conference. I think we'll be right there with all those teams. But just like always, there's never a team that doesn't win some conference games. It's tough from top to bottom, especially when you go on the road. I [also] expect Alma to be one of the good teams in our conference, because they had a lot of young players last year." Reeves added that Harrison, Morrilton, and Greenbrier appear to be in something of a down cycle right now.
"We've been second a couple of times," added the coach concerning the league race. "We finished anywhere from second to fourth. [My] first year [we were] last, but other than that we finished fourth and up, but not first. We've been to state all those years except when the AAA made us forfeit two games." Under Reeves, the GHS girls have reached the state playoffs four times in six years, and are a good bet to do so again this season.
Following the Southside game, the Lady Bulldogs will practice through the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in preparation for a tournament in Van Buren the first week of December. They return home the following week for the H. B. Steward Classic, December 10-12. They will also play Bentonville, Clarksville, and Fort Smith Northside before competing in the Shiloh Christian Classic prior to the beginning of conference play on January 8th at home against Morrilton.