Before playing in the Tournament of Champions last weekend at Fort Smith Northside, the GHS girls varsity basketball team split a pair of non-conference games with Class 6A schools Bentonville and Van Buren.
The Lady Bulldogs suffered their first loss of the season at Bentonville on December 5th, succumbing to an incredible 21-point scoring run by the Lady Tigers, who held on for the 64-57 win.
Greenwood then hosted the Lady Pointers of Van Buren on Tuesday, December 10th, winning in convincing fashion, 69-33.
Bentonville
The Lady Tigers, presumed to be one of the top teams in Class 6A, were playing just their second game of the season, two weeks after their opener, and appeared to be a little rusty out of the gate against Greenwood.
But once Bentonville found its rhythm, the home team blew past the Lady Bulldogs with an uninterrupted 21-point outburst that spanned parts of two quarters.
Greenwood scored eight unanswered points for an 11-4 lead midway through the opening quarter, and Ally Sockey's bucket made it 17-9 with 1:19 left in the period. But the visitors didn't score again until a Jaelin Glass bucket with 2:21 left before halftime.
Bentonville scored seven straight points to pull within 17-16 to end the first quarter, then a layup 14 seconds into the second period put the Lady Tigers ahead to stay. The offensive outburst came to an end with the home team holding a 30-17 cushion with just over two minutes left in the first half.
"For half of the first quarter and pretty [much] the whole second quarter, we just couldn't hit a shot," said Greenwood Head Coach Clay Reeves.
"We were getting really great shots and just couldn't hit them. Then for a little while, with our offense not hitting, it affected our defense a little bit,” he added.
Greenwood pulled within 41-35 on Kinley Fisher's bucket with 3:21 left in the third quarter, but Bentonville rallied with a 16-2 run and took its biggest lead, 57-37, with 3:17 remaining.
But Greenwood made things interesting in the waning minutes by pulling within five points (62-57) on Haven Clements' bucket with 21 seconds left. Bentonville then added a pair of free throws to secure the win.
Fisher had 23 points to lead Greenwood offensively, while senior Jaelin Glass added 17 points. Ally Sockey had seven points while Haven Clements and Shea Goodwin both score six points.
Van Buren
Thankfully, the Lady Bulldogs had no problem bouncing back from their first loss, taking out any lingering frustrations on the Lady Pointers the following Tuesday, December 10th. Greenwood scored the first 10 points of the game and rolled to an easy 69-33 win.
Kinley Fisher drained a pair of three-pointers to jumpstart the scoring. Harley Terry and Haven Clements then added layups, and Greenwood led 10-0 just 1:50 into the contest.
Fisher and Glass then both hit two additional three-pointers and Ally Sockey added two more treys to end the quarter for a 26-3 GHS lead. Besides the six threes in the first period, the Lady Bulldogs also forced nine turnovers.
“We did shoot really well to start with,” said Coach Reeves. “That opened the game up, and our intensity was there defensively.”
Greenwood’s offense finally cooled off in the second quarter, and the Lady Pointers went on a 10-0 run to reach double figures in scoring, cutting their deficit to 31-13 with 3:46 remaining in the half.
After Glass drained another trey for Greenwood, a 6-0 Van Buren run cut into Greenwood’s lead a little more at 34-19. But Greenwood reasserted control in the third quarter with a 16-7 scoring advantage, invoking the mercy rule over the final eight minutes of play.
“Give Van Buren credit. They got after it in the second quarter,” Reeves said. “We missed some shots and kind of went through the motions. We talked about that at halftime. We can’t have letdowns. In the third quarter we improved in the areas we let up on during the second quarter.”
Fisher led all scorers in the game with 20 points, while Ally Sockey added 12 points and freshman Mady Cartwright had 11.