GREENVILLE – The Greenville girls basketball team suffered its first Greater Western Ohio Conference loss of the season on Monday, falling 56-38 to Vandalia-Butler.
“We lost by 18, but I don’t feel confident saying that they’re 18 points better than what we are,” Greenville coach Rachel Kerns said. “But we win as a team, we lose as a team. And tonight we didn’t do everything as a team. These are the kinds of outings we have when we don’t have the whole team, the whole team’s not doing their role tonight.”
Butler led throughout the game on Monday as the Aviators jumped out to a 13-6 first quarter lead. They increased their lead to 19-11 in the second quarter.
“We can’t score 11 points in a half,” Kerns said. “We were lucky to even be in the game at the half. We just had way too many turnovers. Things that we had been doing well up until this game we just kind of let them go out the door. I think we ended up with 21 turnovers, and when you have 21 turnovers and you’re not shooting free throws it’s not a very good combination.”
To get back into the game, Kerns wanted her team to focus on getting to the free throw line. However, the Lady Wave were unable to accomplish that as they only took four foul shots all night while Butler took 32.
“Part of that 32 is skewed a little bit because we had to foul towards the end of the game, but they were much more aggressive going to the basket than what we were,” Kerns said. “At halftime, this was one of the first times that what we talked about we didn’t come out and do. Our main focus was finding a way to get to the free throw line, and we just didn’t do it.”
Even without getting to the free throw line, Greenville did increase its offensive output in the third quarter and scored 10 points. However, the Lady Wave still trailed 32-21 at the end of the quarter.
Greenville was forced to foul in the fourth quarter to try to work its way back into the game, and three Lady Wave players fouled out. Butler was able to make its free throws down the stretch and won 56-38.
Saki Nakamura led Greenville with 11 points on Monday. Also for the Lady Wave, Payton Brandenburg scored 10 points, Morgan Gilbert scored 7, Jada Garland scored 6, Addie Haupt scored 2, and Annie Hayes scored 2.
Tyree Fletcher led Butler with a game-high 15 points. Also for the Aviators, Willow Knight scored 11 points, Abbie Schoenherr scored 11, Jacie Dalton scored 10, Maddie Mitchell scored 4, Natalie Maurer scored 2, Gracie Price scored 2, and Caitlin Plummer scored 1.
Greenville fell to 3-2 overall and 1-1 in the GWOC with Monday’s loss while Butler improved to 3-2 overall and 2-0 in the GWOC. Greenville will return to action on Wednesday with a home game against Tippecanoe.
