By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — The Greenville High School girls’ basketball team lost in a close one to Stebbins High School, 45-41, at home on Dec. 7.

Head Coach Rachel Kerns said the team has to find new ways to win games with a roster that is missing some players due to injuries.

“There’s nothing harder than in the middle of your season when you have to find your identity again. It’s really hard to do it when we’re not at full strength,” Kerns said. “It’s just the reality of where we’re at in our season.”

Greenville started the game slow on offense, but started to play cleaner basketball as the first quarter went on. The Lady Wave ended the first quarter down 12-13.

Both teams struggled offensively for most of the second quarter. Stebbins just couldn’t get any shots to fall down. The ball wasn’t bouncing Greenville’s way. They couldn’t come up with a lot of defensive rebounds in the second quarter and were just off on some passes.

With 3:30 left in the second quarter, Stebbins scored their first points of the quarter. They rattled off 10 points before the end of the quarter.

For Greenville, they left the second quarter only scoring three points, all on free throws. Towards the end of the quarter, Greenville started to get a little frustrated on offense. They were pressing for points, but couldn’t find a way to get some momentum on offense.

Stebbins had a 23-15 lead at halftime. Kerns said she told the team at halftime that the defense needed to step up for the offense to take off.

“We need to be better defensively. When we can turn our defense into offense, a lot of good things happen. I think our best offense today was when we can go in transition,” Kerns said.

Her message worked as Greenville was able to put up 13 points in the third quarter. They came out with a new found intensity to limit the Stebbins offense and play fast on offense.

The Lady Wave fought their way to get a lead on a senior Minaxi Pandey four-point play. The lead would be short lived as Stebbins entered the fourth quarter with a 29-28 lead.

Both teams went back and forth during the fourth quarter. Stebbins was able to make the winning play of the game. With 1:02 left in the game, Stebbins turned their defense into offense as they got the steal and scored to take a 40-39 lead. They never trailed again.

The Lady Wave gave it all they could. It is a team trying to find a play style best suited for them with a limited roster. Only six players recorded a stat in the game.

“I don’t have a lot of extra at any position right now. They’re playing every minute of the game and that’s really hard,” Kerns said.

Pandey finished the game leading the team with 18 points. Kerns said Pandey had a great game overall as she had to play the whole game.

Senior Skylar Fletcher was second on the team with 11 points. Fletcher led the team with seven assists and four steals. Sophomore Megan Lind led the team with 12 rebounds.

Greenville will host Tippecanoe on Dec. 10 for another conference matchup. Game is set for an 11:45 a.m. tipoff.

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