South Warren girls’ basketball coach Lane Embry saw just what he has been looking for from his team on Friday night.
Hosting District 14 rival Greenwood in the first of two regular-season games – with a district tournament rematch all too likely – the Spartans combined a balanced scoring night with some tenacious rebounding to claim a 56-43 victory.
“One of the things we started out with was just intensity,” Embry said. “I thought we came out with a really intense look in our eye tonight, and we did the things that we needed to do against a good Greenwood team to come out with the win.
“ ... I’m proud of the girls for coming out and having confidence, and playing the game that they were asked to play tonight.”
South Warren (8-10 overall, 2-1 District 14) got 11-point nights from three players – McLaine Hudson, Mila Munrath and Gracie Hodges – and nearly had four players scoring in double figures as Lydia Frank finished with nine points.
“That’s something else that we talked about this week and something that we faced a little bit this week is a recognition that some of our girls are just going to have to step up and be willing to take the shot and be willing to score and be willing to take a risk,” Embry said. “And I felt like everybody who played in the game tonight stepped up to the call and did what they were asked to do. We’ve just got to keep getting better and day by day grow as a team.”
After South Warren’s Grace Maxwell tallied a three-point play with 3:42 left in the first quarter, the Spartans never trailed again.
Greenwood (11-7, 1-2) mostly kept pace in the first quarter thanks to an eight-point contribution from junior guard Leia Trinh (game-high 18 points), and the Lady Gators surged back from seven points down in the second to pull within one at 23-22 on Jojo McCorkle’s 3-pointer.
Leading 25-22 at the half, South Warren opened the second half on a 6-0 run to stretch out the lead and then fairly matched the Lady Gators basket for basket for the rest of the night to maintain a comfortable advantage.
Part of the Spartans’ success came by limiting Greenwood’s offensive chances. Through the first three quarters, South Warren outshot Greenwood 46-30. The Spartans also won the rebounding battle, 24-19.
“We always stress about getting to the rim and getting boards,” Munrath said. “And even on offense we stress it too because we know that in their zone, it’s hard for them to rebound off a zone and we needed to crash the boards and we could get a lot of them. And we did that tonight.”
Kayla Grant joined Trinh in double-digit scoring with 14 points and added nine rebounds.
“We probably gave up 20 offensive rebounds,” Greenwood coach Zach Simpson said. “Rebounding is absolutely key for us right now. If we don’t rebound, then we’re not going to win – it’s as simple as that. Some of the things we’re playing defensively, yeah it’s hard to rebound out of. But at some point you’ve got to dig down deep and say nobody else is getting the basketball besides me.”
Beating the Lady Gators was a nice confidence booster for the Spartans, but Embry knows better than to let his team get complacent – and he can point to last season as an example. Greenwood swept the regular-season series, only to have South Warren win in the district tournament semifinals and end the Lady Gators’ season.
“No matter what you have to do to get out the 14th, it’s always hard,” Embry said. “I know that Greenwood has a really good team. I know that they’ll make some adjustments. We’ll make some adjustments. There’s things that we could’ve done a little better tonight.”
GHS 12 10 7 14 – 43
SWHS 18 7 15 16 – 56
GHS – Trinh 18, Grant 14, McCorkle 6, Walker 3, Martin 2.
SWHS – Hodges 11, Hudson 11, Munrath 11, Frank 9, Maxwell 7, Mitchell 4, As. Overbay 3.
Boys
South Warren 66, Greenwood 49
South Warren shook off a slow start with a few timely long-range shots to pull away from Greenwood for a 66-49 win Friday night.
The Spartans led by just three at 20-17 in the second quarter when Brandon Rowe hit back-to-back 3-pointers to close out the first half and give his team a 26-17 lead at the break.
Then to open the second half, South’s Bryce Button buried two more treys to bookend a 9-2 run that extended the lead to 16 at 35-19 with 5:39 left in the third.
Trailing by 21 to open the fourth, Greenwood (5-13, 0-3) tried to cut into the deficit by heating up beyond the 3-point arc. Luke Stansbury hit three 3s in the quarter and the Gators connected for five overall, but South Warren (14-2, 1-1) answered with five 3s of its own.
“Big win. Any win in the 14th District is huge, and that’s a really good program, well-coached,” Spartans first-year head coach Carlos Quarles said. “So I don’t take it for granted, how my young men performed tonight. They did a helluva job.”
Justin Posey and Drew Hudson finished with 12 points each to pace the Spartans, who sank 13 3-pointers in the win.
Stansbury scored a game-high 18 points, hitting five treys.
“The slow pace early in the game was not a bad thing for us,” Greenwood coach Will McCoy said. “It’s wasn’t necessarily our game plan, I wish I could say it was, but it was working in our favor. We were not forcing them, but kind of baiting them into taking some shots we wanted them to take.
“We did give up a couple looks early – I know Posey hit one, Hudson hit one from the corner – those guys can really fill it up, you can’t lose them in man, zone, whatever. Then just those uncharacteristic turnovers against their pressure – just stared down passes and just made some really youthful mistakes tonight that you can’t make in the back half of the season in a district game.”
GHS 6 11 6 26 – 49
SWHS 10 16 19 21 – 66
GHS – Stansbury 18, Simpson 7, Hartis 6, Howard 6, Troutman 6, Davis 2, Hatcher 2, Haycraft 1, Noyce 1.
SWHS – Hudson 12, Posey 12, Button 9, Rowe 9, Goley 7, Smith 7, Jarvis 3, Parrish 3, Rardin 3, Croghan 1.{&end}
