Tiger Cubs streak past Clovers 58-32

Greencastle junior Lauren Bridgewater pulls up for a shot, knocking down the bucket with a hand in her face. (Banner Graphic/GRANT WIEMAN)

CLOVERDALE -- After winning a tight contest over Cloverdale in the championship game of the Putnam County Classic, the Greencastle girls' basketball team was out to prove they were still the top team in the county on Friday, beating host Cloverdale 58-32 to erase all doubt.

The Tiger Cubs were matched early on, leading by just one after the first quarter, but hot outside shooting by senior Alex Basile buried the Clovers before they had a chance to respond.

Basile had 15 points on 5-of-9 3s.

"We were pretty pumped up for this game," GHS coach Bradley Key said. "This is the first conference game, and we wanted to make sure we came out and played well."

Cloverdale's balanced scoring disappeared as the Tiger Cubs extended their defense and put pressure on the hosts, eventually forcing 16 turnovers in the game.

With Greencastle (6-3, 1-0 WCC) starting to pull away, Cloverdale junior point guard Bailee Stevens put together a nine-point, seven-rebound first half to keep her team in the game.

She attacked the basket aggressively, finishing through contact and found seems to gather rebounds.

The Clovers controlled the low post in the first half with junior Taylor Clark blocking three shots and keeping Greencastle junior center Jessica Lenihan to 0-for-5 from the field.

Cloverdale (3-6, 0-1 WCC) trailed by seven at the break but held a slight advantage on the boards (23-22). Greencastle took control early in the third quarter, burying a barrage of outside shots and playing with force in the paint.

Lenihan, with one point in the first half, finished the game with 11.

"You've got to give a lot of credit to Greencastle," CHS coach Matt Langdon said. "They just hit shots tonight. ... We knew that, the way we rotate, there's certain girls that we're going to have to leave open for 3s and they just hit the shots tonight."

Greencastle's guards kept the Clovers out of rhythm and flashed more depth than they have all season, with sophomore Paige Bragg bringing defense and rebounding in her minutes to spell Basile and junior Callan Taylor.

After the Tiger Cubs' last game, a loss at Danville, Key said his team was searching for more players to step up and take pressure of Lenihan and Taylor, who finished with 14 on Friday.

They found it with the reemergence of Basile, a strong first half from sophomore Allison White and others. White had eight points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

"Once we saw what they were doing (on defense), we really started to open everything up offensively," Key said. "We have a good group of girls where we were able to sub in and sub out. Not a lot of teams have that depth, and I think that played to our advantage."

Stevens finished with 13 points, 11 boards and three steals for the Clovers.

Clark had nine points, five boards and five blocks.

Greencastle's next game is at home against Edgewood on Monday at 7:30 p.m., rescheduled from an earlier game that was postponed because of weather.

The Clovers are off until Friday when they play at Monrovia at 7:30 p.m.

Greencastle (58): Basile 5-9 0-0 15, Taylor 6-11 0-0 14, Lenihan 4-11 3-4 11, A White 3-9 1-1 8, M White 1-3 0-0 2, Burgeson 2-2 0-0 5, Bridgewater 1-5 0-3 2, Stoltey 0-4 1-2 1, Bragg 0-3 0-0 0, Evans 0-1 0-0 0, Trout 0-0 0-0 0. Total 22-58 6-10 58.