For the second straight year the Greenwood Lady Bulldogs’ varsity basketball team ended their season in the first round of the 5A state playoffs. This year’s opening round exit happened this past Tuesday against the Lady Eagles of Greene County Tech (GCT), a school located in Paragould in Northwest Arkansas. The state tournament is being played this season in Farmington in Northwest Arkansas, and the host Lady Cardinals of the 5A West are one of the favorites to win the state title, along with GCT. While the GHS girls entered the tournament as the #4 seed from the 5A West with a sub-.500 record, the Lady Eagles were a #1 seed with an impressive 28-1 record. Despite Greenwood’s long history of excellence with eight state titles, the Lady Bulldogs were clearly the underdogs in Tuesday’s postseason matchup.
But first, before the playoffs began, the Lady Bulldogs completed their 2025-26 schedule with road games at Russellville and Mountain Home, splitting the two contests to finish their regular season with a 9-15 overall record, 7-7 in 5A West conference play, good enough for fourth place and the last playoff slot. The Greenwood girls defeated Russellville by 18 points on Tuesday, February 24th, before losing at Mountain Home by 29 points last Friday night.
But it was in that Mountain Home contest that Greenwood superstar senior guard Kylah Pearcy surpassed Anna Trusty as the program’s all-time scoring leader. The two girls played together for two seasons, winning consecutive state championships when Pearcy was a freshman and sophomore. (Keep reading below for more on Kylah’s exploits).
Russellville
The visiting Lady Bulldogs won three of the four quarters against the Lady Cyclones, including a 10-point margin in the final stanza that put the game away. Leading 22-18 after a high-scoring first period, Greenwood narrowly won the second quarter, 11-10, to lead 33-28 at the intermission. But the hometown ladies rallied in the third period, besting Greenwood by seven points, 21-14, to take a brief second half lead, 49-47, heading into the final eight minutes.
But Greenwood’s Halle Fox scored a putback basket to tie the score to open the fourth quarter. Kylah Pearcy then followed with a drive into the lane and a short floater for two points. Russellville kept pace for a while with Ava Cranor hitting a pair of free throws to tie the score at 53-all at the 4:30 mark. Cranor then hit a layup to put the Lady Bulldogs up by two, 55-53, a minute later. The sophomore guard then stole the ball and hit a free throw for a 56-53 GHS lead. Two more Cranor free throws followed but a Russellville three-pointer kept the game close at 58-56 with 2:30 remaining.
After a Lady Cyclones’ free throw cut the GHS lead to one point, Kylah Pearcy hit two charity shots for a 60-57 GHS advantage with just over 2:00 left. In pursuit of the all-time scoring record for Greenwood, Pearcy added three more three throws sandwiched around a Russellville basket. With the clock ticking below 1:00, Pearcy added two more freebies to put Greenwood up 65-59. Two more Pearcy free throws accounted for the final score, 67-59.
The Lady Bulldogs made things harder on themselves with their poor shooting, hitting under 32% of their shots, including six of 28 three-point shots. However, they did win the rebounding battle, 42 to 36, and the points off turnovers, 19 to 14. But the one area where Greenwood excelled was at the free throw line, making 23 of 28 attempts to just eight of 14 for the home team. Steals and turnovers were basically even for both teams.
Individually, Kylah Pearcy kept up her season-long scoring effort with 32 points, 17 of those from the charity stripe. She also led the team with 10 rebounds, eight assists, seven defensive deflections, and five steals. Journey Clements added 12 points on a quartet of three-pointers with seven rebounds and four deflections. Halle Fox netted 11 points with three boards, and Ava Cranor scored 10 points with six rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Rylee McAdams added two points with four boards, two assists, and two steals.
Mountain Home
Last Friday, February 27th, the Lady Bulldogs made the long trip to Northern Arkansas and Mountain Home to take on the Lady Bombers, the #2 playoff seed from the 5A West who won at Greenwood by 29 points on January 30th. But the more things change the more they seem to stay the same, and once again the Mountain Home girls rolled to a 29-point victory, 68-39. The home team dramatically won both the shooting battle and the rebounding war under the basket.
Essentially, the Lady Bombers won the game in the first half, scoring 20 points in each of the first two periods while the Lady Bulldogs scored only six points in the opening quarter and 10 points in the second. Leading 40-16 at the half, Mountain Home held off the visitors in the third stanza, 21-16, before both teams cleared their benches and scored seven points each over the last eight minutes for the 68-39 final score.
The hometown girls shot the ball very well, 49%, compared to the visitors who made only 27% of their shots. The Lady Bombers also won the three-point shooting battle, 8 to 3. The Mountain Home girls also won the rebounding battle, 41 to 29. Turnovers were almost even but the home team had slightly more points in the paint and more points off turnovers while Greenwood led in steals, 10 to 6. Neither team shot many free throws, a combined total of 16 for the game.
Kylah Pearcy and Ava Cranor were the only two GHS players in double figures, accounting for most of Greenwood’s 39 points. Pearcy scored 16 points, far below her season average, but more than good enough to finish the game with the all-time Lady Bulldogs’ scoring record. Cranor added 14 points, Trinity Spicer three points, while Halle Fox, Piper Ames, and Honor Zuress all scored two points each. Pearcy also led in rebounding with five plus three assists, four defensive deflections, and two steals. Cranor had two boards, two assists, two deflections, and four steals.
Greene County Tech
Tuesday’s playoff game tipped off at 1 p.m. in Farmington and for eight minutes the Lady Bulldogs held their own. The game was tied, 14-14, after one period before the Lady Eagles took charge of the contest with a pair of high-scoring quarters. They won the second stanza, 21-9, to lead 35-23 at the half. A 22-15 advantage in the third quarter put the GCT girls up, 57-38, with eight minutes remaining. The Lady Bulldogs managed to win the fourth quarter, 18-15, but it was too little too late to avoid the 72-56 loss and the end of Greenwood’s season.
Despite the disparity in scoring, the Lady Bulldogs (44%) shot the ball well, almost as well as the Lady Eagles (46.7%), but the GCT girls had 10 more shots. They also hit eight three-pointers to seven for Greenwood. There weren’t many free throws in the game, just 27 attempts altogether, and neither team shot the ball well from the line with Greenwood hitting 50% or five of 10 free throws. But Greene County Tech bested the Lady Bulldogs in transition points (18 to 8) and in points off turnovers (25 to 14). Greenwood had 19 turnovers to 14 for the Lady Eagles.
Kylah Pearcy scored 34 points in her final game as a high school player and four-year letterman for the Lady Bulldogs. Pearcy has already committed to play this coming fall at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, where Anna Trusty started her college career before moving on to Oral Roberts University. Kylah is the daughter of Dexter and Chelsea Pearcy. Her dad is the head tennis coach and assistant boys’ basketball coach at Greenwood, and her mother is a former GHS player.
Besides her 34 points, Pearcy also led her teammates in rebounding with 11 plus seven assists, six deflections, and five steals. No other Lady Bulldogs reached double figures in scoring. Journey Clements added nine points and Ava Cranor eight points. Cranor also had three assists and two steals. Eva Booth hit a three-pointer and Rylee McAdams added two points.
The Lady Bulldogs will lose several of this season’s starters to graduation, including Kylah Pearcy, Journey Clements, and Ashlin Rose, plus late season contributor Eva Booth and other seniors, Trinity Spicer, Piper Ames, and Honor Zuress. They will return junior starter Halle Fox and sophomore starter Ava Cranor. Promising sophomore Rylee McAdams should also be back. Also a volleyball player, she improved throughout the season coming off the bench before earning some starts in February.
Casalman’s comments
Head Coach Ryan Casalman offered these comments after the just concluded season. Asked about their first-round playoff opponent, he said, “They were 28-1 when we played them, and that one loss was to (#1 ranked) North Little Rock. We knew we were getting a quality opponent. But I've come to figure out that in the 5A state tournament, you're going to draw a good team no matter what. But Greene County Tech is a really good team with three college-bound players. Their post player (E’marriha Johnson) has signed with Louisiana Tech, and they've got two other players that have signed with smaller schools. So, they are a really talented, well-coached team.
“In the first quarter, Coach [Ryan] Lensing come up with an amazing defensive game plan, and we did a really good job on their post player.
She's their best player and we were able to control her a little bit. We also knew [their Addie Ryan] could shoot it, and we were able to run her off the three-point line in the first quarter, and it showed because we had a two-point lead. But as the game went on, we turned it over too many times, we missed too many easy shots, and then [Ryan] got going. She ended up hitting all eight of their three-pointers. Then Johnson did her thing [too]. But when [Ryan] got going, that's what kind of punched us in the face,” said Casalman.
As for the future of the Lady Bulldogs’ program, the coach said his team was already in rebuilding mode this season, with only two starters returning from the previous squad. “If you take (all-time scoring leader) Kylah Pearcy away from this bunch, and Ashlin Rose, who started her junior year, I thought we were in that mode a little bit this year.” Senior Journey Clements had not started for the varsity squad before this season, nor had junior Halle Fox or sophomore Ava Cranor.
“Now, it makes it a whole lot easier when we’ve got one [player] that averages 30 points a game,” said the coach, referring to Pearcy, who averaged 29.7 points per contest and 2,014 points in her incredible career as Greenwood’s all-time leading scorer. “But it's going to be a little different next year. We’ve got Ava [Cranor] coming back, who is a proven contributor. Then Halle Fox, who averaged seven points a game. So, we’ll get our second and third leading scorers back, and a handful of kids that played a lot of junior varsity minutes this year, and hopefully some help from the ninth graders moving up. So yeah, I guess you could say it's a rebuilding year. We won’t have a really established player [as in the past], but we’ve got some kids with an opportunity to really step up their game and be difference-makers next year. Plus, we've got young kids in the program that are going to come on and help us too, and we're excited about them as well.”
Next season will be the first one in many years without one of the program’s all-time scorers on the floor. In fact, in the 2022-23 season the Lady Bulldogs and legendary Head Coach Clay Reeves had then freshman Kylah Pearcy, junior Anna Trusty, and senior Madi Cartwright all on the same squad, who finished their careers as the #1, #2, and #6 scorers in program history, in that order. “I mean, you've got three of the leading scorers in program history on one team. You wish you had those every year. But reality hits and we're going to have to come up with points somewhere else, and we’ll try to do that next year.”
Returning to the subject of Kylah Pearcy, Coach Casalman agreed that she got everything she could out of her talent and her slight frame. “It's unbelievable,” he said. “You talk about her being petite, and she is. But when you see her on the floor, she's as physical as any kid I've ever coached, and I've coached for 26 years. I mean, she gave 100% and she went 110 miles an hour the entire time. She took some [blows] this year that as soon as she took the [contact], I'm running out on the floor, and she gets right up and says, ‘I'm fine, coach.’
“But you’re right,” he continued. “She got everything out of her stature that she could, and she was just so competitive. She's the most competitive kid I've ever been around. And she thought she was the best player on the floor every night, and I wouldn't have traded Kylah Pearcy for anybody.” Pearcy also averaged seven rebounds a game to lead the team, plus nearly five assists per game, also a team high for the season.