With the opening of the 6A state tournament less than a week away, the Bulldogs (14-12, 7-6) and Lady Bulldogs (19-8, 6-7) are getting ready for what they hope will be a deep post-season run on their home floor. For the fifth time since the opening of H.B. Stewart Arena, Greenwood High School will host a state basketball tournament. This past Tuesday night, both teams took another step forward in their preparations for state competition by sweeping conference foe Russellville.
One conference game remains, Friday night at Conway, although the outcome of those games likely won’t impact the post-season tournament seedings. Still, both head coaches and their players would like to go into the tournament with a little momentum.
“We’ve been practicing hard for three or four days, and we’re trying to work on our conditioning to get ready for the state tournament,” said Lady Bulldogs’ head coach Clay Reeves, who also reflected on his team’s recent four-game losing streak. “We lost to the top four ranked teams in the state, and it’s tough when you play the top four ranked teams in four consecutive games. [But] we competed hard and had a chance. We could see two of those [teams] again, but we know what we’ve got to do from here on out.”
Over the last two weeks, the Lady Bulldogs lost to Fort Smith Northside before winning their last two games against Mount St. Mary’s and Russellville. Coach Reeves hopes to pick up a final win on the road this Friday night at Conway, a talented but perhaps underachieving 7A team. And while a victory Friday night would be a nice way to end the regular season, Reeves admitted that he doesn’t get caught up in winning streaks or losing streaks.
“We’re playing an athletic team,” he said of Friday’s opponent. “They’re not going to state, but they’re one of the better teams in the state. As far as streaks and stuff, a lot of that has to do with the competition that you’re playing. We know what the competition level is that we’re playing, and it’s a 50-50 shot in some of the games we’re playing. But our kids are competing hard. We hope our next three out of four games will be at home, and hopefully we’ll get to play one in Little Rock here in a couple of weeks. I’m not worried about who we play. If our team takes care of what we can take care of, we’ll be fine.”
At Fort Smith Northside on February 12th, the Lady Bulldogs kept it close for three quarters before allowing the Lady Bears to pull away in the fourth period. Greenwood trailed 15-9 after one period and 32-24 at the half. They were down 44-35 after three quarters, but Northside outscored the Lady Bulldogs 24-12 over the final eight minutes for the 66-47 win.
Junior point guard Lundon Williams had 19 points, and sophomore Megan Hartness added 17. Haleigh Henson chipped in with six points.
Last Friday at Mount St. Mary’s in Little Rock, the GHS girls got back in the win column with a comfortable 61-49 victory. Greenwood led 17-6 after eight minutes and 28-22 at the half. They increased their led to 10 points after three periods (43-33), before earning the 12-point win. Williams led the team in scoring with 21 points, followed Sammy Richards with 16 and Hartness with 15 points.
Against Russellvile this past Tuesday night, the Lady Bulldogs took control early and never let off the gas pedal, winning handily, 68-41. Leading 19-11 after one period, Greenwood held an 18-point margin at the intermission, 39-21. But the third quarter was the death blow to any hopes of a Russellville comeback. The Lady Bulldogs blitzed the Lady Cyclones, outscoring them 22-6 to take a 61-27 lead after three periods. Coach Reeves then pulled his starters and let the reserves finish the game.
Sammy Richards led the scoring for Greenwood with 15 points, 11 of which came in the first half. Lundon Williams added 14 points, including a pair of three-pointers in that big third quarter outburst. Mariko McCraney added a trio of long-range bombs as well, all in the third period, and had four treys for the game and 12 points. Megan Hartness added eight points and 10 GHS players made it into the scoring column for the game.
Bulldogs
“We didn’t play our best tonight,” said Bulldogs’ head coach Brian Martin in his office after Tuesday’s come-from-behind win over the Russellville Cyclones. “The second half was a lot better, [and] we did a good job of making free throws down the stretch.”
The Bulldogs fell behind by as much as nine points in the first half, but closed the gap to five points at the break. The Cyclones led 15-8 after one period and 26-21 at the half, after hitting several three-pointers in the opening quarter, even while Greenwood struggled to find the basket. But the Bulldogs opened the third quarter with a 5-0 run to tie the score at 26-all, only to have the visitors regain the advantage after three periods, 39-35.
Senior Ethan Clark scored inside and drew a foul early in the fourth quarter, hitting the free throw and cutting the Greenwood deficit to one point at 39-38. Then a steal and a Drew Caple three-pointer put the Bulldogs on top, 41-39, for the first time since the game’s opening bucket. One more steal and a run out pass to Evan Lensing resulted in another basket and a 43-39 Greenwood lead, forcing Russellville to call timeout at the 5:25 mark.
Russellville wouldn’t fold, however, and tied the game at 47-all on a three-pointer with 1:20 left to play. But a pair of clutch free throws by senior Austin Harris, and three of four from senior Colton McEvoy kept the Cyclones at bay. After Russellville missed on a three-pointer, Greenwood rebounded the ball and got a layup by Ryan Davis at the buzzer for the 54-50 win.
McEvoy finished the game as Greenwood’s leading scorer with 14 points. Ethan Clark added 12 points, and Drew Caple scored nine points in the game.
“We knew they were quicker than us,” said Coach Martin after the game, “but we wanted to control the tempo the best we could. We got some big turnovers and transition baskets in the second half that we sure needed. It’s good to have a victory without us shooting the ball well. The same thing happened down at Russellville in double overtime.” The Bulldogs also won that game and swept the Cyclones for the season. They would like to do the same at Conway Friday night.
“We want to be playing our best basketball at the end of the season, whatever that means,” said Martin. “Friday night is another opportunity to improve and be playing our best basketball next week at home. We’re excited to be having the state tournament at home. But we have a big challenge Friday night at Conway.”
Last Tuesday the Bulldogs faced another big challenge in Fort Smith Northside. The Grizzlies had earlier pulled out a victory at Greenwood, and the Bulldogs wanted to return the favor. But any hopes of doing so were crushed by a 16-0 Northside scoring run to open the second half of play. The Grizzlies led 21-13 after one period and 43-32 at the intermission.
Northside’s scoring outburst in the third quarter easily pushed their lead to well over 20 points. Greenwood rallied a bit, but still trailed 64-43 after three periods before falling 82-63. The Bulldogs had balanced scoring, with Ethan Clark getting 18 points, Colton McEvoy 12, Drew Caple 11, and Evan Lensing 10 points.
At Little Rock Catholic last Friday night, the Bulldogs jumped out to an 11-2 first quarter lead, and held a 15-point margin at the half, 27-12. Both teams scored a dozen points in the third period, with Greenwood leading 39-24 with eight minutes to play. The Bulldogs gave some ground, but held on for the double-digit win, 54-44.