GHS girls, boys split games with Alma and Vilonia
By Richard White
The Greenwood High School girls and boys basketball teams enjoyed mixed results in week two of the 5A West Conference race. Both teams split last week's contests with Alma and Vilonia, but three games into the league season the two squads seem to have divergent agendas as they move into the heart of the conference race. Both teams want to win as many 5A West games as possible, but the Lady Bulldogs must do so without their best player, at least for the next few weeks. The GHS boys just hope to build on their inspired play against Vilonia in notching their first league victory.
Lady Bulldogs
The Greenwood girls won at Alma last Tuesday (Jan. 11) before losing at home to Vilonia last Friday (Jan. 14). But the biggest news of the week was the loss of junior forward and team leader Endsley Evans. Greenwood's top scorer and rebounder, Evans helped the team win the state title last March as a sophomore, and is considered one of the top players in the conference and the state. GHS head coach Clay Reeves revealed that Evans will be out three or four weeks for a non-basketball medical reason.
Against Alma, the Lady Bulldogs notched their first 5A West road win and second straight victory to open the conference season. Leading 38-28, the Lady 'Dogs got an additional lift when sophomore Sammy Richards sank a free throw to complete a three-point play and boosted the lead to 13 points at 41-28 early in the fourth period. But the visitors would score only one more field goal in the game as the home team rallied to trim the Greenwood advantage to just three points at 43-40 after a 7-0 scoring run.
But with only 1:11 remaining in the contest, the rally fell short and Greenwood held on for the 45-43 win. "We have to take care of the ball a little bit better, make good decisions at the end, hit our free throws [and] layups, and do a better job of rebounding," said Coach Reeves following the game. "I'm very happy that we won, but we have to finish stronger. We dodged a bullet."
Back at home last Friday night, the GHS girls faced another tough opponent in the Lady Eagles of Vilonia, whose only two losses this season have been to Conway and Cabot in tournament play, both larger classification schools. Vilonia also won both games with Greenwood last season, and led the Lady Bulldogs Friday night throughout the contest. The Lady Eagles led 14-11 after the first eight minutes, then built a 26-18 advantage halfway through the second quarter. But the GHS girls rallied to score the last six points of the half to cut the deficit to 26-24 at the intermission.
Vilonia increased its lead to 35-28 before Coach Reeves signaled for a timeout at the three-minute mark of the third period. The Lady 'Dogs responded by scoring the final four points of the quarter, while holding Vilonia scoreless. Still trailing 35-32 at the start of the fourth period, Greenwood got a trey from sophomore guard Presleigh Atkins to tie the score at 35, but it was all Vilonia after that as the Lady Eagles scored eight unanswered points to take a 43-35 lead en route to a 56-51 victory.
The Lady Bulldogs got double digit scoring from Sammy Richards with 14 points, guard Lundon Williams with 13 points, all in the fourth quarter, and forward Allie Barnes with 10 points, all sophomores. "Our kids competed hard," said Coach Reeves. "They competed from start to finish. We're not happy with the final result, but I'm happy with the way our kids played tonight." Asked about the absence of Endsley Evans, Reeves was quick to hype the rest of his squad. "We've got 18 other girls on our team, and they've been practicing hard, and they fought hard tonight," he said. "We've got a great team. We've got a lot of players that can play and we're going to build on tonight."
GHS Boys
At Alma, the Bulldogs rallied from a 15-point deficit in the third quarter, cutting the Airedales' lead to just one point at 45-44 with 7:16 left in the game, before losing 64-55 and dropping to 0-2 in conference play. The home team led by as much as 17 points in the first half and held a 34-20 advantage at the intermission. A flurry of three-pointers in the final minutes saved the game for the Airedales.
"We just didn't make them earn it," said Greenwood head coach Brian Martin. "They had some points off turnovers, and we gave them some baskets. We did a great job of climbing back into the game," Martin said. "We played good defense, then [Alma] hit some threes in the fourth quarter. [That] was the difference in the game." Junior Braden Suter had 23 points for Greenwood, while seniors Billyjack Freeman and Chris Caudle each scored 12 points. Nine of Greenwood's 15 total field goals against Alma were three-pointers.
The Bulldogs also shot the long ball well at home last Friday night against Vilonia, sinking 10 three-pointers in an impressive 69-59 victory over the Eagles. It was a must-win situation for Greenwood, hoping to avoid a second consecutive home loss and an 0-3 start in conference play. The first quarter was tight with Greenwood trailing 17-16 after the first eight minutes. But Greenwood outscored Vilonia 22-15 in the second period, building a 10-point lead at the 4:12 mark before settling for a 38-32 margin at the halftime break.
A three-pointer by Braden Suter at the 3:45 mark of the third quarter made the score 49-39, restoring the earlier 10-point lead. Greenwood led 58-45 after three periods and held off the stubborn Eagles in the fourth period to notch its first league victory in 2011. Vilonia never got closer than seven points over the final eight minutes.
Scoring for Greenwood included 21 points for junior guard Ryan Lensing, 16 points for junior guard Braden Suter, 10 points for senior forward Billyjack Freeman, 10 points for senior center Chris Caudle, and six points for sophomore forward Cole McAllister. Suter hit five three-pointers in the game while Lensing added three treys and Freeman contributed two bombs from behind the three-point line.
After the game, GHS head coach Brian Martin was very pleased with his team's play. "It was a good team effort," said Martin, "with Ryan, Billy, and Chris all in double figures for the first time this year. It was a great team effort. We knew how important this game was, being at home. We knew this was a must-win for us."
Asked about the contributions of his sophomores, Martin complimented their play off the bench. "Jansen [Stein], Cole [McAllister], and Drew [Morgan] are getting a little more experience under their belts and are looking more comfortable out there. They play well together and brought us some really good minutes on both ends of the floor. It's good to see those guys improving each game. It just makes us better."
"We were definitely shooting the ball well tonight," added Martin. "Our team moved the ball well and found the open guy and made the extra pass and knocked down the open shots we hadn't done in the other two conference games. You couple that with good defense and we got a good win here tonight. This was our best team effort, there's no question. We want to enjoy the win, but we definitely need to have a short memory. This conference is just unbelievable. It's a challenge every Tuesday and Friday."