TRG SPORTS
By Valorie Brecht
VALORIE BRECHT/STAFF PHOTOS
Top middle, Addison Davidson outruns her opponents and reaches the hoop to score 2 for Greenwood in the girls’ game against Gilman Dec. 12. Top right, Tatym Travis makes a basket for Greenwood while Faith Kolano (on left) boxes out her defender. To right, Greenwood’s Tysen Lindner makes a free throw as the other ball players prepare to go for the rebound.
After a slow start, the Greenwood girls recovered and took it to the Gilman Pirates in their recent home game. The win boosted morale and showed the girls’ ability to be competitive in the Cloverbelt Conference—East.
The Thursday game opened with a Gilman 3-pointer just two minutes into the game. Greenwood responded with a 2-point basket, but after that the Indians were held scoreless for the next couple minutes while Gilman dug in and scored 7 unanswered points. Gilman’s offense continued to dominate until Greenwood made an adjustment.
“We wanted to put some pressure on their offense and they (Gilman) were leaking two girls back and getting some easy layups off of that. So rather than keep that pressure on, I just had everybody go back and play a half court set… They scored 22 points after we took that off, so good game plan on (Gilman coach) Tammy (Weir’s) behalf to start that game, but we had a nice adjustment,” said Greenwood coach Trevor Wuethrich.
Greenwood was able to fairly quickly make up lost ground and went ahead 13-12 with 10 minutes still left in the half. The teams battled back and forth after that, with both getting called for some sloppy play, including multiple travel calls for both. The hurried pace left the teams sprinting up and down the court, not taking the time to get a good look. At just over four minutes remaining in the half, Wuethrich called a timeout and the girls seemed to settle in after that. Greenwood ended the half going strong, with a score of 22-19.
The second half opened with Greenwood senior Eliska Louckova getting a layup off a fast break, which was a sign of good things to come for her team. While teams typically maintain their pace or slow down in the second half as fatigue sets in, that was not the case for the Greenwood girls. They increased their scoring output, putting up 30 points compared to 22 in the first half. In contrast, the Pirates did not score as many points in the second (15) as the first (19).
The Greenwood girls also improved their free throw percentage in the second half. In the first frame, they made less than half their free throws, at four out of 10. In the second, they improved that to six out of 11, or 55%.
Just three minutes into the half, the Indians had gone ahead by 10 points, including from a 3-pointer from the top of the arc by Louckova. Fellow senior Bria Thomas got the other 3-pointer for Greenwood, which also occurred in the second half.
“The first half, I don’t think we made many jump shots. Everything was around the rim. But the second half, we kind of opened up their defense a little bit, hit a couple jump shots and that opens up the D and we get some better looks. It seemed to work for us tonight,” said Wuethrich.
While the scoring ebbed and flowed, by the time the clock ticked down to 3:55, it was back to a 10-point gap with Greenwood on top, 44-34.
Gilman ran out of steam and ended up getting stuck at 34 while Greenwood charged full speed ahead. With contributions from Tysen Lindner, Addison Davidson, Avery Travis and Tatym Travis, Greenwood ended the game 52-34 for an 18-point victory.
Lindner took the lead in scoring for Greenwood, putting up 17 points, with 14 of those coming from 2-point shots. Davidson was next, earning 10 points, including four 2-pointers and two free throws. Faith Kolano scored 9, all off of 2-pointers except for one. Louckova had 7, Tatym Travis had 5, Thomas had 3 and Avery Travis had 1.
As with any game, several players made contributions not reflected in the scorebook that were still crucial to the success of their team. Lindner was a key rebounder on both offense and defense, not a surprise given she was the one to break her school’s 29-year-old rebounding record last year as a junior. Kolano, a sophomore, also was a strong presence on the inside.
“This is her (Kolano’s) sixth game on varsity. It’s taken her four games to kind of get comfortable and confident, which I think is the key there. She’s got that now and has been a real asset for us in our offense,” said Wuethrich.
The coach had several other positive things to say about how his team performed.
“We battled under the hoop again tonight. It feels like we out-rebounded them two-to-one tonight. We took care of the ball somewhat, but that press kind of messed with us in the first half too. But we settled in and did OK.”
Wuethrich is hoping the win is indicative of how the team will approach games the rest of the season.
“I’m just proud of how hard the girls play. We always talk about that in practice, you know, ‘Play hard every possession,’ and the scoreboard will dictate the outcome. We won tonight based on our work ethic.”
The win put Greenwood at 1-2 in conference play and gave them a 3-3 record overall.
