GREENVILLE – Through three quarters Greenville led Trotwood-Madison, the state’s fifth ranked team, but the Rams took control in the fourth quarter to defeat the Green Wave 82-71 on Tuesday.
The Wave played as well as they could have against one of the state’s best teams, Greenville boys basketball coach Mike Bashore said.
“I thought we played really well for the most part,” Bashore said. “They’re the No. 5 team in the state for a reason. To be right there in that game with about four, five minutes left, I thought we played pretty well except for a little two-minute stretch there in the fourth. We corrected so many things we did wrong the first time (in a 69-52 loss to Trotwood on Jan. 19) so as a coach I’m happy about that. They’re not an easy team to handle. That pressure is fantastic. They’re well coached. But I thought we did as well as we possibly could have. We didn’t like the end of the outcome, but I thought our kids played extremely hard, extremely well.”
Greenville had a great start to the game as it built an early 18-8 lead. The Rams scored the final seven points of the first quarter, but the Green Wave still led 18-15.
Trotwood-Madison outscored Greenville 24-20 in second quarter as the Rams held a one-point lead, 39-38, going into the halftime break.
In the third quarter Trotwood started strong and built a seven-point lead, 48-41, before Greenville ended the period on a 14-6 run to take a 55-54 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Rams then started the fourth quarter on a 19-4 run to go up 14 points, 73-59, and take control of the game.
“That’s what they do,” Bashore said. “They go on a spurt real quick like that, and they did that. We got out of sorts there for about a minute and a half, and it ended up costing us the game.”
Greenville got back on track late and outscored Trotwood 12-9 the rest of the way but didn’t have enough time for a comeback as it lost by 11, 82-71.
“We don’t have anybody left that we’re going to face that’s as tough as we played the last two games (Wayne and Trotwood-Madison),” Bashore said. “That’s a positive. If we can get that kind of effort going forward, we’ll be all right.”
Clay Guillozet led Greenville with 23 points in Tuesday’s game. Also for the Green Wave, Devin Hendrix scored 15 points, Aaron Rich scored 12, Trae Wood scored 12, Isaiah Gable scored five, Codi Byrd scored two, and Peter Pandey scored two.
With Trotwood slowing down Gable, who averages more than 20 points a game this season, other players such as Hendrix and Wood did a great job in stepping up for the Wave.
“Trae Wood and Devin Hendrix both stepped up and had big games for us tonight,” Bashore said. “We’re going to need that going forward.”
Torrey Patton led Trotwood with a game-high 35 points on Tuesday. Also for the Rams, Amari Davis scored 22 points, Myles Belyeu scored 15, Amir Foster scored five, Justin Stephens scored three, and Caleb Johnson scored two.
Greenville fell to 11-9 overall and 5-4 in the Greater Western Ohio Conference North Division with the loss while Trotwood-Madison improved to 18-2 overall and 9-0 in the GWOC North.
Greenville will finish up its regular season with a pair of road games, traveling to Sidney on Friday and traveling to Versailles on Saturday.
“We’re building towards the tournament, but we’ve got two tough road games this weekend,” Bashore said. “It’s not going to be easy, but if we can continue to get that kind of effort I like our chances.”
Tuesday was senior night for four Greenville players – Codi Byrd, Chris Force, Clay Guillozet and Yuta Nakamura – as they played their final home basketball game for Greenville.
“Three of them don’t get a lot of playing time,” Bashore said. “For them to come to practice every day and put that kind of effort in says a lot about who they are as kids. All four of them are pretty tight friends-wise. They’ve been playing ball together since they were little. We’re going to miss each one of them in a different way and what they bring to us as a program. They’ve been good kids for us for four years, and it’s going to be sad to see them go.”
