GREENVILLE – Friday was a special night for Greenville’s seniors plus junior Noah Walker, who broke the Green Wave’s single season 3-point record during an 83-61 loss to Tippecanoe.
Walker made three 3-pointers to give him 59 for the season, eclipsing the previous record of 57 that current Southeast Missouri State University freshman Isaiah Gable set two years ago. Piqua played tight defense on Walker throughout the night, but he still was able to knock down three treys.
“It’s not just that he’s made a bunch,” Greenville boys basketball coach Kyle Joseph said of Walker’s 3-point shooting. “He’s shooting a high percentage, too. We try to talk about ways to try to get him some more open looks, but, yeah, they played great defense on him. Sometimes we joke he’s better shooting out there from that volleyball line sometimes than what he has a nice open one at the (3-point) line. He works really hard so that’s quite an accomplishment.”
Along with celebrating the historic night for Walker, Greenville honored its seniors – Will Coomer, Ethan Emrick, Kyle Mills and Noah Vanhorn – prior to Friday’s game. Though the Wave have struggled this season, falling to 1-17 with the loss to Tippecanoe, Joseph said the seniors have been key to the development of the Greenville program.
“It’s obviously disappointing record-wise being where you’re at, but we’re father ahead in a lot of areas than what we were at this time last year,” Joseph said. “We don’t have an Isaiah Gable who we can just count on to get 20 (points) a night or an Aaron Rich who’s going to get us 10 rebounds a night. We don’t have that, but the things like how hard we’re playing and even in principles we’re better at that than what we were last year. And it just goes to they’re working hard at it, and it’s year two of me being here. And that stuff when they graduate it’s not going to leave so we’re not going to take a step back next year. Next year we’re going to start off the year right where we’re at now as far as those principles and keep carrying it on, and they’ve done a phenomenal job of that.”
Tippecanoe got off to a fast start on Friday, jumping out to a 24-10 first quarter lead on Greenville. Walker did make one 3-pointer in the opening frame, tying Gable’s single season record of 57.
The Red Devils added to their advantage in the second quarter, doubling up the Green Wave at halftime, 40-20.
In the third quarter Tippecanoe continued to pull away and increased its lead to 26 points, 58-32.
Greenville cut into its deficit in the fourth quarter. The Wave got it down to 19 with 6:46 in the period when Walker made his record-breaking 58th 3-pointer of the season. Midway through the quarter he added one more trey to give him 59 for the season with four regular season games remaining.
By the end of the night, though, Tippecanoe had a 22-point victory, 83-61.
“Not just by the score, that was not our best game we’ve played for quite some time really,” Joseph said. “Probably got caught up a little bit in the emotions of senior night and things like that. I told the guys, there were a lot of things we didn’t do very well, but we always keep hustling out there. You never feel like guys have quit. Guys on the bench still cheering on their teammates all the way to the end and that’s as important as anything we can do.”
Marcus Wood led Greenville with 13 points on Friday. Also for the Green Wave, Walker scored 11 points, Coomer scored 10, Mills scored 10, Vanhorn scored 8, Tyler Beyke scored 6, and Jordan Dill scored 3.
Caiden Smith led Tippecanoe with a game-high 31 points. Also for the Red Devils, Dan Hagen scored 15 points, Cade Gingerich scored 10, Jason Stephenson scored 6, Noah Bledsoe scored 5, Tyler Skaggs scored 5, Josh Wildermuth scored 5, Ben Sauls scored 3, Patrick Manes scored 2, and Harrison Timmer scored 1.
Greenville fell to 1-17 overall and 0-13 in the GWOC with Friday’s loss. The Wave will finish the regular season with four consecutive road games beginning on Saturday at Tecumseh.
