Greenwood girls defeat Spencer by double digits

By Valorie Brecht Last Thursday, the Greenwood girls returned to their winning ways after losing to Neillsville a couple of days before. The Greenwood Indians faced the Spencer Rockets at home, and despite some challenges, forged ahead to get the double-digit win.

Spencer got the tip to start the game. At 17:23 on the clock, Spencer ’s Autumn Davis made a jump shot just shy of 3-point range. Twenty seconds later, Greenwood’s Tatym Travis made her own jumper to tie the game at 2. Greenwood ran a full-court press to put some pressure on Spencer. After missing a shot, the Rockets found the net again with a layup from Alexa Weber. Greenwood’s Tysen Lindner responded with her own layup to tie the game at 4.

At 15:27, Avry Wuethrich made a quick pass to Lindner that she promptly put up for a hoop. Shortly after that, Spencer’s Hannah Schreiner was fouled and went to the line, making one to put the score at 6-5, Greenwood leading. However, that is the closest the score would be for the rest of the game.

At 14:10, Greenwood’s Lainy Trampush made the first three of the night from midway between the baseline and the top of the arc. Addison Davidson made another three for the Indians less than a minute after that. She also stole the ball and sped down the court for a layup, but it was no good. However, her teammate Avry Wuethrich was waiting right there to catch the rebound and send it up again for a score. At 11:12, Sarah Beth Reiff got in on the scoring action, picking up 2 points. Just after that, Wuethrich made another assist to Lindner for a basket. By the time Spencer called a timeout at 10:31, Greenwood had scored 12 unanswered points, with the score 18-5.

After the break, Greenwood slowed down the tempo and refused to rush to take a shot. In the meantime, the Rockets broke through their scoring drought after Claudia Krause received a quick overhead pass from Ema Schultz and put it up for an easy basket. The next time Spencer scored, Schultz made the shot herself, finding an opening for a layup. Thirty seconds later, Davis hit a three from up top to raise the Rockets’ point total to 12.

Over that same time period, Greenwood went up to 27, with baskets from Reiff and Lindner, plus a corner three from Avry Wuethrich.

As the half neared its end, Greenwood got a bit more sloppy with the ball and missed a couple of shots. In the last five minutes of the half, Greenwood mustered just 3 more points, from a corner shot by Trampush. Spencer added 6 more points. As the buzzer sounded for halftime, the score was 30-18, the Rockets a little too close for comfort for the Greenwood girls basketball team.

In the second half, Lindner got things rolling with a layup, followed by a corner three. The Indians quickly put some space between themselves and the Rockets, scoring 10 points over the first five minutes of the half while the Rockets only scored 2. By the end of the game, the Greenwood girls had pulled up and away from the Rockets, securing the 55-31 win.

In addition to increasing their scoring output, the Greenwood girls got defense figured out as the game went on.

“Our last couple games, our defense wasn’t the greatest (allowing Colby 57 points and Neillsville 74 points). I was worried we lost our mojo defensively,” wrote Greenwood coach Trevor Wuethrich in an email. “I had to get the girls pumped up for this one and they responded, holding Davis to 10 (points) and the team to 31.”

Besides Davis, other Spencer point totals were: Schultz 6, Weber 4, Montana Kohls 3, Emma Nieman 3, Krause 2, Theresa Knecht 2 and Schreiner 1.

On Greenwood’s side, point totals were: Lindner 15, Reiff 12, Avry Wuethrich 8, Davidson 7, Travis 7 and Trampush 6.

“Offensively, as you can see, everyone contributed equally. The entire team played well. We had 14 assists, which means we executed our offense pretty well,” wrote Trevor Wuethrich.

The win put Greenwood at 9-4 in conference play. The team had one more regular season game versus Columbus Catholic on Tuesday before the Cloverbelt crossover game next week, followed by the first round of playoffs Feb. 20.

VALORIE BRECHT/STAFF PHOTO

VALORIE BRECHT/STAFF PHOTO