Greenwood girls put up fight against Colby

When the sixth-place team in the Eastern Cloverbelt Conference faced off against the eighth-place team last Friday, the lower-ranked team proved they weren’t going down without a fight.

The Greenwood girls basketball team took on Colby on their home court. Greenwood got things going with a two-point basket, but then had a dry spell while Colby went up to nine. At 12:04 left in the half, Greenwood’s Tatym Travis made her free throw to break Greenwood’s drought. Shortly after, Colby’s Dakota Hoeper put in a free throw of her own to put the Hornets in double digits. Greenwood responded Addison Davidson making a layup.

Colby started putting the pressure on defensively and getting more aggressive. Since the pressure was heavier on the inside, Greenwood’s Celine Wuethrich improvised and made a shot from the outside. She hit a three-pointer near the top of the arc at 9:45 left to make the score 10-8, the closest it had been since the start of the game.

Colby got a basket to answer back, but a little later Wuethrich hit another three, this time from the corner, to make it 12-11 with Colby barely still grasping the lead.

The fast-paced game raced toward the end of the half. Colby junior Kylie Orth and sophomore Angelique Hernandez each put in threes to give the Hornets a little more of a lead again.

At 4:37 remaining, Greenwood sophomore Tysen Lindner made one from the charity stripe. Just 20 seconds later, she pulled down a rebound and put it back in the form of a layup to give her team two more points. That was just one example of the important inside work she did throughout the game.

“With Tysen, the main reason she plays so many minutes is her tenacity under the basket. She wants the ball. Rebounding is not a skill; it’s how bad you want it, and she really wants it,” said Greenwood coach Trevor Wuethrich.

Before Greenwood could gain too much momentum, though, the girls made a couple of costly mistakes. They traveled twice and also turned the ball over. Colby had the chance to go to the line and Savana Thomsen made both her shots. Next, Lindner went to the line and made both her shots as well.

Colby picked up a couple more baskets before the half ended. Travis and Lindner each made a free throw. By the end of the half, the score was 25-20. The Hornets had been been ahead for most of that time but their competitors were right at their heels. The second half started with several missed shots for Greenwood. Then the Colby girls began to capitalize on what little lead they did have. Alexis Vanderhoof hit a three from the top of the arc, followed by a jumper by Hernandez. Greenwood responded with a 2-pointer, but Colby forged ahead and got out to a 13-point lead, 36-23.

At 11:31 remaining, Celine Wuethrich put in a three, to the cheers of the Greenwood crowd, to make it a 10-point game. As the half wore on, though, the Greenwood girls began to get tired and couldn’t shift the energy back to their team.

“That’s been an issue all season; we play hard for 30 minutes, but it’s a 40-minute game,” said Trevor Wuethrich. “With thin numbers, it’s hard not having a deep bench to draw on.”

Despite the fatigue, the girls maintained a roughly 10-point gap until 5:34 remaining, at which point the score was 46-35. From there, Colby started to pull away. The final score was 58-36 for the Colby win.

Trevor Wuethrich said things could have easily gone differently if the girls were more consistent with their shooting.

“It’s frustrating, because I thought we could win heading into this game. And we maybe could have, if we could make our free throws and shoot better,” he said.

Greenwood scored 10 points from free throws while Colby had 13.

On the plus side, Greenwood’s teamwork was reflected in the stats book, with seven players earning a piece of the scoring pie. Avry Wuethrich scored nine points, all from 3-point field goals. Lindner scored eight points. Travis had seven. Davidson scored five. Trampush and Britney Walde each had three. Sarah Reiff had one.

Above, freshman Tatym Travis makes a layup in Greenwood’s home game versus Colby Jan. 27. She scored seven points for her team. Below, Lainy Trampush sinks a 3-pointer for Greenwood, much to the delight of the home crowd, during that same game. The score was close throughout much of the contest before Colby pulled away.

VALORIE BRECHT/STAFF PHOTOS