GREENVILLE — Cheered on by a student body decked out in cowboy duds, the Greenville Green Wave varsity boys basketball team corralled the Piqua Indians (5-3, 1-2) Friday night with a 73-62 victory.
Senior Clay Guillozet led the team with 31 points and also became the Green Wave’s all-time leading scorer.
Greenville jumped out to a quick 8-2 lead over Piqua, but the Indians closed the gap and soon took the lead, 11-8, by scoring nine unanswered points.
Junior Isaiah Gable ended the Green Wave basket drought by hitting a 3-pointer to tie the score. By the end of the first period, Greenville led 14-13.
The Wave hit its stride in the second period, offensively and defensively, taking a 32-26 lead into the half.
With a quick two-pointer, junior Aaron Rich commenced Wave scoring at the beginning of the third period. The Greenville squad kept a substantial lead on Piqua throughout the third period.
Guillozet hit a 3-point shot at the buzzer to give the Green Wave a 48-38 lead at the end of the third, then added another two points at the beginning of the fourth to increase the Wave’s lead by 12.
Both teams turned up their scoring frequency in the final period, with Piqua adding 24 points to Greenville’s 25. For the final basket, Gable burned the Piqua defense for a layup to end the game 73-62.
Gable (19 points) finished second on the night to Guillozet’s 31-point output. Rich scored 12 points and junior Devin Hendrix hit three free throws. Off the bench, junior Peter Pandey scored six and Senior Codi Byrd added two points.
Piqua junior Nate Monnin led the Indians with 26 points. Indian Senior Bradley Hohlbein added 18.
The Green Wave were assisted by Piqua’s poor performance at the free-throw line as the Indians hit only 48 percent of their free throws (12 of 25 attempts). In contrast, Greenville hit 17 of 22 free throws (77.3 percent).
The Wave was 53.2 percent from inside the three and 40 percent on 3-point attempts.
With the win, Greenville improves to 3-0 in Greater Western Ohio Conference play and 5-3 overall.
