By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — Self-inflicted mistakes led the Greenville High School boys basketball team to lose to West Carrollton High School, 87-61, at home on Jan. 17.

Greenville was coming off a 63-58 win over Fairborn on Jan. 13. Head coach Matt Hamilton said each game brings a new learning opportunity for the team.

“We are just using every game as a building block for the next game. We learned from the Sidney game which helped us win vs Fairborn, and we just continue to focus on what’s next,” Hamilton said.

The Green Wave came out with a good first quarter. They were able to get open shots and handled the West Carrollton half-court defense.

However, they were down 18-13 after the opening quarter. Greenville had some turnovers that led to easy points for the Pirates. West Carrollton also was able to crash the offensive glass and score on second chance opportunities.

Then West Carrollton took over in the middle two quarters. The Pirates scored 50 points between the second and third quarter.

The problems Greenville had in the first quarter became more common during the second and third quarter. The Green Wave were having turnover problems. The West Carrollton press and half-court defense gave Greenville problems.

The Pirates continued to get second chance points. The Pirates sold out on getting the offensive rebound and capitalized throughout the game.

Hamilton said his team couldn’t counter the size and athleticism of West Carrollton in this game.

“We knew that we were going to have a size disadvantage, and that we needed to do the little things right in order to win. We really struggled with West Carrollton’s athleticism to get ourselves in proper rebounding position,” Hamilton said.

Greenville was down 68-36 entering the fourth quarter. That didn’t stop the Green Wave from competing hard.

The players came out and had their best offensive quarter of the game. They outscored West Carrollton 25-19 to end the game. The Green Wave found a rhythm on offense.

Greenville continued to give it their all on defense and was scrappy against West Carrollton. Hamilton has said all season he wants his team to play hard all four quarters and gain a reputation in the MVL for being a tough team to play. The team continues to work towards that goal.

“I’m always proud of how hard our guys play. The MVL is an extremely tough league to play, there are no night’s off,” Hamilton said.

Senior Haiden Livingston had a game high 28 points. Sophomore Drew Hamilton was second on the team in points with 11, all scored in the second half. Senior Jarrod Demange scored 10 points in the game.

Greenville is now 1-13 on the season with a 1-10 conference record. The Green Wave will travel to Butler on Jan. 20 for another conference matchup.

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