GREENVILLE – The Lady Wave JV team numbers 17 players. Included on the JV squad is the girls freshman team that seldom gets to compete due to many schools not fielding a freshman team for the 2020-2021 season. With the Tuesday night game the last Lady Wave JV game of the season, Greenville JV coach, Laura Germann had confidence in her JV team to give the freshman girls the first quarter of play.
The Stebbins Lady Indians invaded the Greenville gym for Tuesday night JV and varsity games with the Lady Wave junior varsity squad taking the early game by a double digit 37-26 victory.
“Once we started to inch our way back we were truly in control of the whole game,” said Coach Germann. “Even when we were down I thought that we were in control. It was just a matter of if we were going to finish shots.”
Coach Germann started an all-freshman team giving the younger girls valuable playing time on the court. The visitors closed out the opening quarter with a 7-1 lead over the local girls.
“I wanted to give the freshmen a chance to go out and prove themselves a little bit,” said Germann. “It’s unfortunate the situation we are given right now and the freshman don’t get to play in a lot of games. There are quite a few freshmen, we have 17 kids on the JV team and you can only dress 15 so they rotate who sits but it’s about giving kids an opportunity to play.”
“They come to practice every day and they work hard and in my opinion they deserve the right to play,” continued Germann. “Because of COVID issues and having to play in the league – other teams in the league don’t have freshman teams, they didn’t have a chance to play games so with it being the last game I think they deserved an opportunity to go out and prove themselves.”
“The score was 1-7 when I took them out or before I changed but they really didn’t do anything wrong other than they didn’t finish the shots,” Germann noted.
With Coach Germann going to her JV squad in period No. 2, the Lady Wave battle back to take the quarter 13-5 sending the teams to the break with Greenville holding a slim 14-12 advantage.
Gracie Thacker paced the Lady Wave with six second quarter points, Emalee Bowling 3-points and Addie Klosterman and Laikyn Bruner each with 2-points.
Solid defensive Lady Wave third quarter play held the visitors to 2-points while Greenville was adding 11-points to the board to lead 25-14 with one period to play.
Bruner hit two baskets for 4-points, Klosterman was 3-4 at the line and Ava Loudy and Thacker each added 2-points rounding out third quarter play.
The teams played to a 12-12 fourth quarter giving the Lady Wave JV a well-earned Miami Valley League win over Stebbins.
Klosterman led fourth quarter Lady Wave scoring with 4-points, Thacker 3-points, Wright and Bowling 2-points each and a Bruner free throw.
“We didn’t shoot real well from outside but Gracie Thacker and Emeely Bowling crashed the offensive rebounds really hard and when they started finishing some shots that got us going in the right direction,” Coach Germann stated.
Gracie Thacker led Greenville and all scorers with a game high 11 points in the win.
BOXSCORE:
GREENVILLE 37, STEBBINS 26
GREENVILLE – G. Thacker 11, A. Klosterman 9, L. Bruner 7, E. Bowling 5, L. Wright 2, A. Loudy 2, K. Gump 1 – TOTALS 12 13-32 0 37
STEBBINS – A. Weimer 10, E. Sherwood 4, M. Welsh 4, D. Tolbert 3, G. Vanderweerd 2, A. Colon 2, K. Kerns 1 – TOTALS 4 6-12 4 26
3-POINTERS:
Greenville 0
Stebbins 4 (A. Weimer 2, D. Tolbert 1, E. Sherwood 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS:
01-13-11-12 37 Greenville
07-05-02-12 26 Stebbins
