GREENVILLE – The visiting Vandalia-Butler Aviators stayed undefeated on the season with a 46-34 Wednesday night MVL win over the Greenville Green Wave.
“Butler is not flashy,” said Greenville coach, Bobby Jones. “They are very methodical with the ball on offense, they take care of the basketball.”
The Aviators took the floor with a starting lineup of four guards and a 6’6” center on their way to an 13-8 lead after one period of play. Hayden Bush paced the Wave with four first quarter points, Carson Fletcher added a 2-point bucket and DJ Zimmer went 2-2 at the line.
Greenville battled back in period No. 2 outscoring the visitors 13-8 with Bush drilling two 3-pointers good for 6 points and DJ Zimmer tossing in 6-points including 2-2 at the line sending the teams to the halftime break tied at 21-21.
Butler’s used a smothering pressure defense, taking the third period 10-6 to lead 31-27 after three quarters of play. Greenville’s bench accounted fall all third quarter points with Million Bryant accounting for 4 points including a baseline trey and a Truman Nicholas 2 point basket.
“It was 21-21 at halftime,” Jones noted. “Defensively we were pretty good, got a little something going offensively and then the first three minutes of the second half they score 6 points and you could just see it in our guys’ eyes – just kind of deflating but we knew coming into it that Butler was going to do their thing.”
The visiting Aviators took advantage of 8-12 shooting at the fourth quarter free throw line to put the game away in the final stanza outscoring the home team 15-7 to earn the win and improve to 3-0 on the season. Greenville’s 2020-2021 season record stands a 0-3.
“It helps when you have a 6’6” guy inside,” said Jones. “They took care of the basketball in the second half and forced us to have to come out and pressure the ball a little more and they got to the free throw line as a result.”
Not one to make excuses, Jones, the first year Greenville varsity boys coach politely took time to answer several questions with respect to the effect the COVID season dating back to March is having on the young Greenville team with little varsity experience.
“We are doing everything on the fly right now,” Jones replied. “The nice thing is these guys are coming to practice every day and they are working hard. A lot of the issues we are having right now defensively should have and could have been fixed in the summertime. You handle skill things, you handle strength, you handle all those things in the offseason and right now we have to do those things right now – get in the weight room and working on skill development.”
“So, from that standpoint we are behind a little bit but they just have to keep putting their nose to the grindstone, playing for each other and playing hard and things will turn for the better for them,” concluded Coach Jones. “Right now they are keeping a positive attitude and keeping each other up. They work hard and that is all we can ask of them right now – but their time is going to come if they keep chipping away.”
BOXSCORE:
GREENVILLE 34, BUTLER 46
GREENVILLE – H. Bush 10, DJ Zimmer 10, M. Bryant 5, T. Nicholas 3, R. Hanes 2, A. Baumgardner 2, C. Fletcher 2 – TOTALS 9 7-10 3 34
BUTLER – T. Montague 20, N. LoBianco 12, K. Fullam 5, C. Hendricks 5, C. Bennett 2, C. Buchanan 2 – TOTALS 10 17-28 3 46
3-POINTERS
Greenville 3 (H, Bush 2, M. Bryant 1)
Butler 3 (N. LoBianco 1, T. Montague 1, C. Hendricks 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS:
08-13-06-07 34 Greenville
13-08-10-15 46 Butler
