Last week the Greenwood Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs made three trips to Garland County to compete in the annual Lake Hamilton Classic basketball tournament. The event also featured Nashville, Searcy, and the hometown Wolves and Lady Wolves. The GHS boys split two games with Searcy and Lake Hamilton while the GHS ladies defeated Nashville and Searcy sandwiched around a loss to the Lady Wolves. The Lady Bulldogs then returned to Central Arkansas this past Tuesday for another high-profile non-conference contest against the Little Rock Central Lady Tigers.
Bulldogs
Head Coach B.J. Ross felt his varsity boys played well at Lake Hamilton despite losing to the host team last Thursday by 25 points. They did win their opening contest against Searcy by two points last Tuesday. The Bulldogs are currently 2-1 on the season after starting 2-0 following wins over Clarksville in the season opener and Searcy in tournament play.
“I thought our guys played extremely well this week,” said Ross. “We went 1-1 in the Lake Hamilton Classic. We battled and beat Searcy, which is a good win. We played great team defense and shot the ball well. I thought we played well against Lake Hamilton even though we lost. We did a great job turning them over. We outrebounded them and played extremely tough. I’m so proud of all our Bulldogs and the way they are representing the “G”.
In their tournament opener against the Searcy Lions, the GHS boys kept themselves in the contest with a 16-point second quarter to head into the locker room at halftime tied at 27-all after trailing 12-11 at the end of the first eight minutes. Searcy led 39-38 after three stanzas before the Bulldogs pulled ahead in the fourth quarter for the narrow 51-49 win.
Fort Smith Northside transfer Jack Scott led the team in scoring with 16 points, followed by fellow senior Jayden Garnes with a dozen points, the only two Bulldogs to reach double figures. Starter Hudson Clark added eight points and sophomore Elijah Nolan came off the bench and scored six points, all in the first half. Blake Christiansen and Steven Philpot scored four points each and sophomore reserve Ty Holt added a field goal and half-a-dozen rebounds, tying him with Scott for the team lead. Jayden Garnes had five assists as well.
Last Thursday the Bulldogs returned to Lake Hamilton to take on the host Wolves and suffered through a bad shooting performance in a lopsided 60-35 loss. Coach Ross watched his team score just three points in the opening quarter before adding 10 points in the second stanza, trailing 35-13 at the half. Lake Hamilton won the third quarter, 17-11, before the Bulldogs closed by winning the fourth period, 11-8.
The final shooting stats told the story. Greenwood shot just 22% from the floor and only 15% from beyond the three-point line, hitting just five of 34 attempts. They sank just eight of their 26 two-point attempts. No GHS player reached double digits offensively, led by Jayden Garnes with nine points. Hudson Clark and Ty Holt each scored seven points while Steven Philpot and Jack Scott netted five points each. Blake Christiansen added two points. Ty Holt led the squad with five rebounds.
Lady Bulldogs
After opening their season with a close loss to Class 6A Fayetteville, 62-60, the GHS ladies opened play at Lake Hamilton against a very good Nashville squad, winning 63-61. Greenwood opened with a big first period, scoring 23 points to lead 23-15. The Lady Scrappers rallied somewhat in the second stanza, but still trailed 40-34 at the intermission. Neither team reached double figures in scoring in the third period before combining for 35 points in the fourth.
The Lady Bulldogs shot the ball well, hitting 44% of their shots overall, including 12 of 23 two-point attempts and 12 of 31 three-point shots, or nearly 39%. They took only four shots from the free throw line, hitting three. Kylah Pearcy led her teammates with 19 points, followed by Journey Clements with 12 points while Izzy Smith had 11 points. Piper Pitts (8), Ashlin Rose (7), and Pate Jones (6) also contributed points. Izzy Smith and Ashlin Rose grabbed seven rebounds each. Smith also led with six assists while Kylah Pearcy had five and Pate Jones had four assists.
Two days later, last Thursday, Greenwood returned to Lake Hamilton to take on the host Lady Wolves, a traditionally strong program and this season appears to be one of their better squads. The hometown girls jumped ahead 26-13 over the first eight minutes. Even though Greenwood won the second stanza 12-3, the Lady Bulldogs still trailed 29-25 at the half. The Lady Wolves added to their lead in the third quarter, winning the period 17-11. But Greenwood responded over the last eight minutes to trim the final margin of their loss to 64-58. Greenwood shot less than 30% for the game.
Junior Kylah Pearcy led the way offensively with 23 points, eight rebounds, five assists, and three steals. Senior Izzy Smith wasn’t far behind with 15 points, two rebounds, three assists, and three steals. Ashlin Rose had seven points and as many rebounds, while Piper Pitts and Pate Jones had five points each. Pitts had six boards and Jones had five.
Last Saturday, the Lady Bulldogs made their final trek to Lake Hamilton to take on the Lady Lions of Searcy High School, and the contest was a tale of two halves. The Searcy girls won the first two quarters, 19-16 and 13-12, to lead 32-28 at the intermission. But the Lady Bulldogs rallied in the second half, winning the third quarter 19-10 and the fourth period 18-9 to overtake the Lady Lions, winning 65-51. The GHS girls shot well, hitting nearly 50% of their shots.
Once again, Kylah Pearcy led the way with 21 points plus five rebounds, two assists, and five steals before she fouled out late in the contest. Izzy Smith added 13 points with three assists and four steals. Ashlin Rose had 11 points with 12 rebounds and four steals. Pate Jones finished just outside of double figures with nine points, three boards, four assists, and five steals. Journey Clements scored six points and Piper Pitts had five points with five rebounds and three steals.
With school out for the holiday, the Central game this past Tuesday was played before a sparse crowd and Greenwood led 15-14 after one period. But the contest got away from them in the second and third quarters. The Lady Tigers won the second stanza 20-11 for a 34-26 halftime lead, then outscored the visitors 24-16 in the third period for a 58-42 advantage after 24 minutes. The Lady Bulldogs rallied in the fourth quarter, doubling up Central, 24-12, to trim the final margin of defeat to a very respectable, 70-66.
While the GHS ladies shot the ball very well, they got beat on the boards and had far too many turnovers (19). The Lady Bulldogs shot 46% overall, including 11 of 20 three-point shots plus seven of eight from the free throw line. But the Central girls won the battle of the boards, 39-22, outscored Greenwood 40-20 in the paint, had 14 steals to just six for their opponents, and blocked four shots.
Individually, Kylah Pearcy and Izzy Smith both poured in 23 points for Greenwood. Pearcy added four rebounds and four assists to her stat line. Journey Clements had nine points in the loss while Ashlin Rose scored six points with five rebounds. Pate Jones also hit a three-pointer and Piper Pitts scored two points.
After the Central game, Head Coach Ryan Casalman offered a few comments about his team’s recent play. “We played a really good half against both Nashville and Searcy,” he said. “And I thought we played well against Lake Hamilton but we couldn’t shoot it. We missed 14 shots inside four feet. Then at Central I almost bet we gave up 20 offensive rebounds and had 20 turnovers. We are 2-3, but I told the girls that we should be 5-0.”
Despite their long trip the day before to Little Rock, Casalman brought his team back for a morning practice on Wednesday, much of that time spent watching game video. “I wanted to make sure they saw what we were seeing. I wanted them to understood how to value the basketball. I love our kids, and I think our talent level is good enough to be a post-season team. But it’s November,” said the coach.
“We play the Tuesday after [Thanksgiving] at Conway, and they are really good,” he continued. “Then we get nine days off before the Northwest Arkansas Classic at Springdale Har-Ber.” Besides Greenwood and Har-Bar, Bentonville and Fayetteville will also participate in that tournament. Casalman hopes to see great improvement in his team during those nine days of practice before facing three Class 6A teams at Har-Ber.