By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — It wasn’t the prettiest of games, but the Greenville High School girls’ basketball team took care of business. They defeated Fairborn High School, 41-32, for their first conference win of the season at home on Nov. 30.

Head Coach Rachel Kerns said there’s still things the team needs to improve on from this game. But, a win like this showed just how much improvement has been made with the program.

“A year or two years ago if we don’t play well, there’s no way we win a game. Credit to our girls for doing enough to win. At the end of the night, that W is really what we’re looking for,” Kerns said.

Greenville was able to get points up on the board during the first quarter. They were up 14-6 after the first.

The offense couldn’t get into a groove. They had some turnovers on some easy scoring opportunities. Completing passes seemed like a challenge early on.

The trend continued during the second quarter as well. Kerns did go to a bigger lineup as their forwards had a size advantage over Fairborn.

But the Fairborn defense played tall. The Lady Skyhawks were scrappy and swarmed the Greenville post players. They wouldn’t allow any easy buckets.

At halftime, the Lady Wave were up 23-13. The Lady Wave defense created most of the offensive opportunities for the Lady Wave.

Both teams took advantage of the third quarter. Greenville started out with a few buckets before Fairborn took over in the second half of the quarter. The Lady Wave had their lead shrink to a four points heading into the fourth quarter.

The missed scoring opportunities almost seemed to catch up to the Lady Wave, a problem they haven’t encountered this season.

“We’ve just got to take care of the basketball a little better. So many balls were in our hands and just went out of bounds. Those are the type of turnovers we haven’t really had this year,” Kerns said.

At the start of the fourth quarter, senior Josie Camocho made back-to-back three pointers to give the Lady Wave a 10 point lead. From that point on, Greenville held on for the nine-point win.

Camocho led the team with 12 points, all scored on three-point shots. Fellow seniors Minaxi Pandey and Skylar Fletcher had nine and eight points respectively.

The team did get to the free throw line often in the game as they were in the bonus at the start of the fourth quarter. They went 12 for 29 from the charity stripe. Kerns said while she is happy with how often her players were able to get to the line, she wants to see her team convert more of those attempts.

This was also a game where Greenville had to play without one of their key players. Kerns said they found out on Nov. 29 that they lost one of their better defenders for the year. It’s going to take some time for the team to adjust.

“It’s kind of a new season now. It’s kind of a new team. We’ve got to learn how to play with what we have. We won and we just move forward,” Kerns said.

The Lady Wave are 2-2 on the season and will travel to Butler on Dec. 3 for another conference matchup. Game is set for an 11:45 a.m. tipoff.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]