Greenwood holds off Lady Trojans
Hot Springs could not get things to go its way Wednesday afternoon as Greenwood held on to take a 65-44 win in the first round of the Class 5A state basketball tournament at Trojan Arena.
Finding themselves down 19-4 at the end of the first quarter, the Lady Trojans (12-11) pulled within 32-21 at the break.
Lady Bulldogs (23-4) head coach Clay Reeves said that he was glad for the opportunity to play another game before the rest of the tournament plays out.
“That’s about our third game in three weeks,” he said. “You know, due to the state tournament being moved and with all the snow stuff, we’ve just got to get back in rhythm and play — play as a team and get after it a little bit harder. I didn’t think we gave a very good effort offensively or defensively tonight but hopefully we will do better than that come Friday.”
While Hot Springs sought to stay in it, Greenwood did not let up as sophomore Mady Cartwright led off the third quarter with a 3-pointer and followed with a 3-point conversion moments later. Freshman Praylin Jones scored the first two buckets for the Lady Trojans in the second half as senior Jurnee Hicks added another bucket off an inside shot to pull within 38-25 with just under two minutes off the clock.
Senior Ally Sockey added a shot in the lane for Greenwood before grabbing a steal and passing ahead to junior Abby Summitt for a score in transition. After junior Shea Goodwin tacked on another transition bucket, senior Jaylia Reed answered for Hot Springs, banking a trey in from the right wing to cut the deficit back to 12 with 2:20 to go in the third.
Greenwood senior Kinley Fisher took over during the last two minutes of the frame, putting up 7 points to give the Lady Bulldogs a 53-32 lead going into the fourth.
“I thought, you know, when your back’s against the wall playing a team at the level that Greenwood is, that can play as many players as they can and try to wear you down the way they do — and they’re a great ball club, you know, hats off to them. The girls competed; we kept it, you know, 10-point and 12-point game,” said Hot Springs head coach Josh Smith. “We fought back in that first half. We made some good decisions, got to the free throw line like we wanted to do. And the second half, we didn’t get to the free throw line like we did the first half, but the girls’ effort was tremendous. Just proud of the four seniors and what they’ve gone through their senior year. I mean, it’s something that none of us would ever think in the fact that they had to deal with what they did. Those seniors are just a special, special group.”
Freshman Anna Trusty put the Lady
Bulldogs on the scoreboard to begin the final eight minutes, stealing the ball mid-court and going all the way for the bucket and the foul. Though her free throw attempt rimmed out, Fisher scored again for Greenwood with a steal and layup before junior Nadiya Valrie got the Lady Trojans on the board with a 10-foot jumper just outside the paint.
Trusty answered with a crossover from the top of the key, taking it all the way in for the score before Reed got hot from behind the arc. Reed downed back-to-back treys to bring Hot Springs back with 19 with 4:05 remaining.
Goodwin, Cartwright and junior Megan Gray each scored again for the Lady Bulldogs as Reed picked up the Lady Trojans’ final 4 points, sinking a one-handed scoop shot with 40 seconds to go. Gray’s 15-foot jumper set the final.
Despite the win, Reeves noted room for improvement for the Lady Bulldogs heading into the second round.
“I didn’t think we were where we were supposed to be most of the time,” he said. “We were a step late and not moving very well — not like our normal selves, for whatever reason. But, you know, first game in the state tournament’s always the hardest one. Sometimes you just kind of get lost for a little while and you usually wake up, you know. We’ll have to wake up for the next game but we’ll get better.”
Smith was proud of the way his team found a way to compete in the face of adversity.
“I feel like we had a good game plan on ways to attack it, and we could,” said Smith. “When we got set up the way we wanted to attack it, we were able to break it and get some looks that we wanted. … You feel like you’re playing against seven or eight people on the floor at all times the way they move. And they caused us some problems for sure, and we turned it over quite a bit for them. You know, but on their misses and their shots they took, we went and rebounded and we could keep them out of it, you know, so I’m just proud of the way that we tried to attack.”
Greenwood opened the match on a 13-0 run before Reed got the Lady Trojans on the board by penetrating and hitting off the glass at the 3:20 mark of the opening frame. Hicks added a putback moments later as the Lady Bulldogs capped the quarter on a 6-2 spurt.
Reed connected with Jones to open the second frame as Valrie followed up with a pair of free throws. Both teams found success from the perimeter as the quarter went on.
Fisher led Greenwood with
20 points, four rebounds, a pair of steals and an assist while Cartwright put up 18 points, five steals, three boards and one block. Summitt added 11 points, four steals two assists and a block.
Reed’s double-double performance led the way for Hot Springs as she garnered 19 points,
10 rebounds and three assists. Jones followed with 11 points and two boards, McDaniel had 6 points, five boards and a pair of steals, Hicks had 4 points, seven rebounds, two steals and a pair of assists, and Valrie had 4 points.
Praylin’s a freshman, I thought she stepped up and played big … And she’s done that for us the last two games, and that just shows that we’ve got some coming up that are going to be able to fill in some spots next year and play as sophomores which is going to be big by the time they’re seniors. The more experience we get them on that court, the better off we’ll be down the road.”
Greenwood will play Jonesboro (20-6) Friday at 4 p.m. in the second round at Trojan Arena.