Greencastle clinches WCC share with win

Greencastle sophomore Callan Taylor scored 25 points on Friday, a win that clinched a share of the West Central Conference title. (Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT)

MONROVIA -- In order to capture a share of its first conference title since 2010, Greencastle's girls' basketball squad needed to win at Monrovia Friday night.

With their 53-47 victory, the Tiger Cubs did exactly that, splitting the West Central Conference regular season title with the Bulldogs and Cascade.

The game itself was scrappy early on as both squads traded baskets in the early going until Greencastle began to apply full-court pressure.

Monrovia did not handle the harrying and pressing well and allowed the Tiger Cubs to keep the Bulldog lead from growing past the three points they trailed after one quarter of play.

The visitors continued to rattle the cage of the hosts, scoring seven of their 12 second-quarter points off turnovers and took a 20-19 lead into halftime.

Greencastle's pressure defense created even more problems to start the third as the Tiger Cubs opened the quarter on a 12-4 run to take a 32-23 lead.

Both squads began to settle into an offensive lull until late in the period when sophomore Callan Taylor buried two three-point baskets to push the visitors' lead to 10.

To cap the period, sophomore Jessica Lenihan buried a three at the buzzer to shock the home crowd as Greencastle held a 43-30 lead.

As the fourth quarter ticked on, the Tiger Cubs dwindled the clock away but lost some of their offensive impetus, allowing the Bulldogs to close the gap to as close as four points.

A Taylor jumper, followed by a steal and a Rayleigh Amis layup, put the visitors ahead for good and gave Greencastle a piece of the WCC title for only the third time in 25 years.

Greencastle head coach Brad Key said that the squad utilized its strengths to outdo Monrovia's best asset.

"We thought we had a little more speed than they had," Key said. "They're a big team. We've seen that pressure has worked at times and we rotated well when we pressed.

"We wanted to take advantage of our quickness. We knew if we got into a half-court game with them, we'd be in trouble. We tried to keep it up-tempo as much as possible."

Key added that the pressure created extra chances for the squad to get good looks.

"Steals got our offense going," Key said. "Once we got a couple of baskets to fall, we had confidence shooting the three.

"Callan Taylor got a couple of easy baskets and then had the confidence in her game to knock down some threes. She led us but it was a good team effort and a good team win."

Taylor was shut out on Tuesday but responded with a game-high 25 points.

Though things got a little closer than Greencastle would have liked near the end of the game, Key said that the squad responded better to have a large lead late.

"We talked about winning the game a quarter at a time," Key said. "We were up one at halftime and then 13 heading into the fourth. It allowed us to slow down and use some clock.

"At West Vigo earlier this year, we were in a similar situation and jacked up three consecutive threes. That's not what we wanted to do with a lead and we did a better job of playing with a lead tonight."

With regular season play concluded, Greencastle looks toward the sectional opener against West Vigo next Tuesday.

Key said that though the squad had already beaten the Vikings, West Vigo had shown a lot of fight against other sectional squads.

"We've talked about playing our best basketball at the end of the year," Key said. "It was Feb. 1 today, and we played pretty good basketball.

"We play West Vigo in the sectional and while their record is not great, they're not bad. They were close with Edgewood, Owen Valley and Brown County.

"We can't take anyone lightly. We've got a good shot at getting to the sectional final but we have to take care of West Vigo first."

At Monrovia
Greencastle 8 12 23 10 -- 53
Monrovia 11 8 11 17 -- 47