The Greenwood Lady Bulldogs have now completed the first half of the 6A/5A West conference schedule, with six games remaining before moving on to the 6A West conference tournament. The GHS girls opened league play with consecutive losses to Alma, Farmington, and Harrison, the last two of which occurred at H.B. Stewart Arena. But that all changed last Friday night.
Greenwood traveled to Siloam Springs for its first league game against a 6A opponent, then went to Clarksville on Saturday for a makeup game after an earlier cancellation. The Lady Bulldogs won at Siloam Springs, fell narrowly at Clarksville, then hosted Class 6A Russellville this past Tuesday.
Russellville
The GHS girls found themselves in the middle of an offensive drought in the first half against the Lady Cyclones. Russellville led 14-2 after one quarter and 19-5 at the half.
At one point in a frustrating opening period the Lady Bulldogs missed four shots point blank under the basket, then confounded things by committing several first half turnovers. Thankfully they turned things around somewhat in the second half.
Trailing 26-13 at the 2:20 mark of the third quarter, junior Kaila Cartwright completed an old-fashioned three-point play, trimming the deficit further. Greenwood added one more field goal and trailed 26-18 with eight minutes remaining.
The GHS girls continued their push in the early part of the final stanza. Sophomore guard Kyiah Julian drove the lane and scored with 5:32 left to play, but hit the floor in great pain, injuring her right ankle, forcing her to leave the game for good.
Ninety seconds later senior Sara Reeves scored inside to cut the Russellville lead to 30-25 near the 4:00 mark, but then Greenwood hit a wall. The Lady Cyclones scored the next 10 points to go up by 15 before coasting to a 42-29 win. Julian led the home team in scoring with 14 points.
Head Coach Clay Reeves acknowledged that losing Julian in the fourth quarter likely hurt his team's chances of completing the comeback. "Her going down," he said, "with the rhythm we had in the game at that time; we were playing good defense and rebounding well. She was kind of on a roll at the time. She got in a rhythm there, but we didn't step up after she went out.
"Like I told the kids at the half, 'We've got to play better.' We got great shots in the first half, they just didn't go in. But our kids kept competing," said the coach.
Asked about losing a 6A conference game at home after winning at Siloam Springs days earlier, Reeves said, "We try to win them all, whatever they are. We've got six conference games left. We're not worried about who we're playing. All we've got to do is take care of ourselves and keep improving."
Clarksville
Last Saturday afternoon the Lady 'Dogs fell to Class 5A Clarksville, 50-47. Greenwood trailed 6-3 after one quarter and 25-21 at the intermission, but the game got away in the third quarter.
Clarksville outscored Greenwood 16-8 in the third stanza, taking a 41-29 advantage heading into the fourth quarter. The Lady Bulldogs rallied, scoring 18 points over the final eight minutes, but it wasn't enough to avoid the loss.
"They're mainly a three-point shooting team," said Coach Reeves of Clarksville. "We just have to play one possession at a time. We competed hard and gave ourselves a chance to win. We outscored our opponent in the fourth quarter. They finished strong. I was happy with the way our kids competed and kept fighting. They're learning the value of every possession."
Most of Greenwood's points came from three players. Kyiah Julian had 16 points to lead the team. Kaila Cartwright added 12 points and Jaelin Glass scored 11 points.
Julian and Cartwright tied for the team lead in assists with four each. The same pair also had five rebounds each, but it was Sara Reeves who led Greenwood in rebounding with six boards.
Siloam Springs
The Lady Bulldogs trailed 16-14 at the half and 27-25 after three quarters before finding offensive success in the fourth quarter against the Lady Panthers.
"For 3½ quarters we just couldn't buy a basket," said Head Coach Clay Reeves. "We were playing good defense, rebounding, and getting great shots. They just wouldn't fall. But our kids just kept competing and playing hard, and finally, midway through the fourth quarter we started hitting some shots.
"We were behind the whole game, and then we got like 10 [points] ahead pretty quick in the middle of the quarter, and ended up winning by five," he explained.
The Lady Bulldogs outscored Siloam Springs 20-13 over the final eight minutes, leading to a crucial 45-40 conference victory. Sophomore guard Kyiah Julian and senior forward Sara Reeves led the team with 10 points each. Freshman Jaelin Glass scored seven points and sophomore guard Susannah Stein contributed six points.
Junior Kaila Cartwright led the squad with eight rebounds, while freshman Harley Terry grabbed five boards. Glass led the team with five assists and sophomore guard Baleigh Wiginton had four.
Schedule
The second half of the league slate gets underway on Friday when Greenwood hosts Alma. Next Tuesday they will also host Clarksville before heading to Farmington next Friday.
The regular season schedule will end at Russellville on February 16th, with the 6A West conference tournament slated to start two days later on the 18th. According to Coach Reeves, the higher seeded teams will host each game, and six of the eight 6A teams will qualify for the state tournament at Lake Hamilton.
Besides Greenwood, Siloam Springs, and Russellville, the other 6A West conference schools include Benton, El Dorado, Sheridan, Lake Hamilton, and Texarkana, just as in football.