Greenwood spoils girls’ senior night
Greenwood’s girls basketball team appears again to be a force to be reckoned with in Class 6A.
The Lady Bulldogs forced 24 Siloam Springs turnovers and rolled to a 5A/6A District 1 win in a matchup of 6A teams.
“That’s what they force and they’re really good at it,” Siloam Springs coach Tim Rippy said of the turnovers. “Obviously to beat them you’ve got to play a pretty mistake-free game on the offensive end. You need to keep it to 10 or less I think and you’ve got to be really good at the free-throw line.”
Greenwood got off to a quick start and finished strong in the first half to take a commanding lead on the Lady Panthers.
The Lady Bulldogs (16-9, 9-2) led 10-2 early until a bevy of fouls allowed Siloam Springs to get back in the game at the free-throw line.
“The way that they play D, they’re obviously very aggressive,” Rippy said. “Because of that they’re OK fouling you and putting you on the line some. Then you as an opponent have to capitalize and take advantage of that and obviously be strong with the basketball and make good decisions.”
The Lady Panthers (819, 4-8) stayed within 10 points of the Lady Bulldogs for much of the first half, and a 3-pointer from Morgan Vaughn pulled Siloam Springs within 27-18.
Ally Sockey answered with a basket for Greenwood to get the lead back up to 29-18. The Lady Bulldogs got buckets inside from sophomore Jaelin Glass and freshman Kinley Fisher along with two free throws from freshman Haven Clements and sophomore Angela Price for a 37-22 lead.
With 4.8 seconds remaining Greenwood Susannah Stein scored an old-fashioned three-point play for a 40-22 lead at halftime.
Greenwood opened up a 29-point lead in the third quarter before Siloam Springs cut it back to 20 going into the fourth.
The Lady Bulldogs went right back to work forcing turnovers in the fourth quarter and opened up as much as a 36-point lead and a running clock.
“Our kids’ effort, I can’t ever question their effort,” said Greenwood coach Clay Reeves. “We just have to keep playing hard and be where we’re supposed to be. Made a lot of good passes, a lot of good shots. I really don’t have a gripe of anything. Our kids are getting better and playing well together. They know it’s that time of the year for that to be happening.”
Kyiah Julian led Greenwood with 21 points, while Angela Price had 12. Greenwood seems to be set up for long term success with only one senior on the roster and five freshman that contribute to the varsity team.
“Our kids are ready for games,” Reeves said. “We’ve got a lot of good players on our team. We’ve got some really good practices. They usually can’t wait to get to play against another team because they’re playing with great competition against each other every other day.”
Hadlee Hollenback led Siloam Springs with 15 points, while Morgan Vaughn had 10, Kenlie Noel and Brinkley Beever each with five, Shelby Johnson four, Brianna Ponticello and Jael Harried each with three and Kirsten Williams-Loftis with two.
Siloam Springs received the No. 7 seed for the 6AWest Conference Tournament and was scheduled to play on Saturday at Sheridan in the opening round. Results were not available at presstime.
The Lady Panthers are scheduled to play again Tuesday at the winner/ loser of Saturday’s game between No. 3 Russellville and No. 6 El Dorado. Siloam Springs must win one of its first two 6A-West Conference Tournament games in order to clinch a berth in the Class 6A State Tournament in West Memphis on Feb. 28-March 3.
“It’s clear what you have to do,” Rippy said. “It’s a situation where whoever we play we feel like we can go compete with them and possibly beat. If we have all our pistons firing and together, I feel like we can play with anybody in the league. We’ve gained some confidence over the last two to three weeks and played some pretty good basketball at times and should have had a winning record. We just kind of got beat down at Clarksville or we would probably have finished that last stretch 3-2. So we’ve played some good basketball. I feel like we’ve had several kids step up and contribute and that’s what they’re looking for in the postseason.”
Greenwood 79, Siloam Springs 48
Greenwood 20 20 19 20 — 79 Siloam Springs 11 11 17 9 — 48 Greenwood (16-9, 9-2): Julian 21, Price 12, Baggs 9, Glass 8, Fisher 7, Goodwin 6, Cartwright 5, Sockey 5, Clements 3, Stein 3.
Siloam Springs (8-19, 4-8): Hollenback 15, Vaughn 10, Noel 5, Beever 5, Johnson 4, Ponticello 3, Harried 3, Williams-Loftis 2.