GREENVILLE – Greenville took another step toward playing a complete game on Wednesday night but fell short and lost 44-36 to Trotwood-Madison in a Greater Western Ohio Conference contest.
“I think they played hard, I think they played with some pride, and I don’t always see that,” Greenville girls basketball coach Rachel Kerns said. “I think they really believed they could win this game, and that was good for me to see. That was a step in the right direction from where we had been.”
After seeing her team compete for a quarter or two in games earlier this season, Kerns said she saw three good quarters from the Lady Wave on Wednesday. However, a second quarter in which Greenville couldn’t get anything going offensively prevented the Wave from possibly beating the Rams.
Greenville went into the second quarter holding an 11-8 lead. The Lady Wave got balanced scoring from Cassie Cromwell, Chloe McKinney, Sara Wenning and Karsyn Shaffer in the first quarter to build an early lead.
But in the second quarter the offense went cold. Trotwood began the period on an 8-0 run to take a lead it held the rest of the night. Payton Brandenburg made a basket late in the period for the Lady Wave to end the scoreless drought, but Greenville found itself down 18-13 at halftime.
“The bottom line is we just can’t shoot 22 percent from the field and expect to win a game,” Kerns said. “If we make five more shots, it’s a totally different game. We got enough shots off that we could make five more of them.”
Trotwood-Madison added to its lead in the third quarter and gained its first double-digit advantage late in the frame. However, two early baskets by Cromwell and a pair of 3-pointers by Wenning kept the Wave close, 32-23, entering the fourth quarter.
After Trotwood again took a double-digit lead early in the fourth quarter, the tide turned and Greenville went on a 10-0 run to cut its deficit to a single point. Cromwell, McKinney and Brandenburg led the offensive charge as Greenville reduced the deficit to 34-33.
However, the Lady Wave couldn’t get any closer and ended up losing by eight, 44-36.
“This is definitely a game that I felt like we could have won,” Kerns said. “But a lot of that comes from not having won a lot in the past so you don’t know what it takes to win. Tonight was a step in the right direction. Again if we could go back and play that second quarter who knows how things would have played out.”
Cromwell led Greenville with 11 points on Wednesday. Also for the Lady Wave, McKinney scored eight points, Wenning scored eight, Shaffer scored five, and Brandenburg scored four.
Taj Thompson led Trotwood with a game-high 22 points. Also for the Rams, Caria Boykins scored seven points, Khadijah Ahmad scored six, Mercedes Woodward scored four, Aylssa Curry scored three, and Alyaah Murphy scored two.
Greenville fell to 2-13 overall and 0-4 in the GWOC North with Wednesday’s loss while Trotwood-Madison improved to 6-9 overall and 3-1 in the GWOC North.
Greenville will play at Covington on Saturday in its next game.
