VANDALIA – The Greenville girls basketball team showed brief flashes of the team it could be against Vandalia Butler on Wednesday night.
But the Lady Wave did not play consistently and that was their downfall as they had just one quarter where they played even against the Aviators. However, it is a four-quarter game and Greenville could not muster enough points in the other three quarters to keep up eventually falling 38-19.
At the start, the team dug itself a deep hole with the only basket being scored by Haleigh Mayo while Butler reeled off 15 points to open a sizable lead in the first quarter. The team had problems turning the ball over and were giving up easy baskets.
The second quarter was where it looked like the team had a chance to make a difference. They went on a tear scoring 12 points while only allowing Butler 4. Jada Garland nailed a couple of 3-pointers during this run and Mayo, Lani Shilt and Annie Hayes also scored to get the team within striking distance at halftime. It was 19-14 going into the locker room and Butler could feel the heat.
But in the second half Butler went into a uptempo game pressing and trapping on defense and running the court on offense. Greenville couldn’t seem to find an answer as the game sped up. They rushed shots on offense and couldn’t stop them on defense. The team rebounding suffered as well. They were only getting one shot on offense and were allowing Butler second chance opportunities on defense. It was the Aviators turn to go on a run now as they scored 12 points in the third quarter and only allowed Greenville a single point by Mayo at the free throw line.
The fourth quarter was played closer, but still Greenville gave up 8 points while only scoring 4. It was like there was a bungee cord on the basket for the visiting team as they could not consistently score points. The team managed to score more than 50 in its first game, but has not scored 30 in any of its next three games.
“Offensively we need to find a way to finish. We get a lot of looks, but we are shooting 20 percent these past few games,” stated Greenville coach Rachel Kerns after the game. “We have gotten some really good looks, but we are just missing them. We have to become better on the offensive end of the court. We gave up 38 points and we should be able to have a chance in any game we keep our opponent under 40. But these last few games have been all about our lack of offense.”
In a week, the Lady Wave will play a very good Tippecanoe team.
“They have a great team, and a great program. Their coach has done a good job with them. But we need to focus on ourselves and start getting better every game. We have to focus on what we can control – and that is building our offense,” Kerns said.
Score by quarters
Greenville^2^12^1^1^-^19
Vandalia Butler^15^4^12^7^-^38
Individual scoring
Greenville – Haleigh Mayo 3 1 7, Lani Shilt 1 0 2, Jada Garland 2 0 6, Annie Hayes 2 0 4. Totals: 8 1 19.
Butler – Tyree Fletcher 4 1 9, Evan Neely 0 2 2, Gracie Price 6 0 16, Abbie Schoenherr 4 0 9, Jacie Dalton 1 0 2. Totals: 15 3 38.
3-pointers: Greenville 2 (Garland 2), Butler 5 (Price 4, Schoenherr)
Records: Greenville (1-3, 0-2 GWOC North), Butler (3-1, 2-0 GWOC North)
