By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — The Lady Wave basketball team couldn’t get the win on senior night against West Carrollton High School as they lost 42-29 on Feb. 1.

Both teams started the game a bit sluggish as they went into the second quarter tied at seven each. Head coach Rachel Kerns said she didn’t mind a slow start against a team that wants to push the pace.

“I don’t mind a slow start against West Carrollton, they don’t want anything about this game to be slow. That just shows we were in control more of this game than what people might have thought,” Kerns said.

The Lady Pirates took over in the second quarter as they outscored the Lady Wave, 12-3. West Carrollton started to get some offense going as Greenville just couldn’t get any shot to fall in.

At halftime, West Carrollton was up 19-10. From that point on, Greenville stayed close with the Lady Pirates but couldn’t get a run going to put a dent into West Carrollton’s lead.

Kerns said the team missed sophomore Megan Lind’s defense in the second quarter. Lind picked up a second foul during the quarter and Kerns subbed her out. From that point, the Lady Pirates capitalized and went on a run. Kerns said the team does need to learn to not foul, but also have someone step in situations like those.

In the second half, the Lady Wave stayed close with the Lady Pirates. Kerns said defensively, they did a great job of rebounding and limiting second and third chance opportunities. West Carrollton normally is able to separate themselves in games with their offensive rebounding.

“They didn’t get very many rebounds just to go back and score. That’s really the reason we stayed in this game a little bit,” Kerns said.

Greenville had some stretches of good offense, but had many cold streaks as well. Kerns said while West Carrollton has a little more firepower than them, they could have made it a closer games if they made just a few more shots. The ball wasn’t bouncing towards the Lady Wave’s way.

On senior night, senior Gracie Thacker led the team with 11 points. Kerns said she was proud of Thacker for attacking an intimidating defense all game long.

The Lady Wave are 6-14 with a 5-12 conference record. Greenville will end the regular season with a road trip to Sidney on Feb. 4. Soon after, they will play postseason basketball against Tecumseh at Trotwood High School on Feb. 6.

Kerns said the team is playing better basketball during the second time around the MVL. That level of play could come out during their tournament game.

“We are playing pretty good basketball right now. We’re playing teams much better the second time around, in general. That’s exciting,” Kerns said. “We’re going to go out there and I don’t think Tecumseh is going to have as easy a game as they think they might have.”

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