Lady Tiger Cubs handle Rox, 50-36

Friday, December 14, 2007
Greencastle junior Becky Grivas (23) puts a shot up over the Rockville defense late in the fourth quarter. Grivas came off the bench and was the Tiger Cubs' second-leading scorer with 11.

Sometimes a team learning to win needs an easy night. The Greencastle girls' basketball team got just that Thursday night, as they controlled the game throughout and defeated Rockville 50-36.

The win broke a three-game losing steak for the Lady Tiger Cubs (3-3, 0-1 WCC).

Greencastle's defense set the tone, particularly in the first half, as they held the Rox (2-8, 0-1 WRC) to just 11 points.

"What (the win) does for us is it really shows the girls they can get out and flat-out defend somebody," GHS coach Glenn Hile said. "(Rockville) is really a pretty good offensive ball club, and we held (Chelsie) Stout in check pretty much in check until the fourth quarter. And (Kieran) McMullen, I don't know if she hurt us at all until late.

"To hold them to 11 points in the first half was fun," Hile continued. "I've always been a defensive coach at heart. For us to play that kind of defense made me really happy."

The Rox offensive leaders, Stout had 16 points while McMullen finished with nine. For both, the bulk of the points came late.

The defense wasn't the only thing working for the Cubs, though. Hile thought his team executed well in all phases.

"We played really great defense in the first half. We ran out well. We ran our offense real well. We rebounded extremely well. They were bigger than us," Hile said.

Especially active on the offensive glass was Kelsey Hennette. The senior forward scored five first half points, all springing from offensive rebounds.

"Kelsey came to me today at school and said, 'You know, you got mad at me last year and benched me against Rockville. I said, 'Well then, you probably owe them something.' So, I think she had a mindset tonight that she was going to prove she was a worthy opponent," Hile said. "She went out there and rebounded really well."

Hennette finished with seven points.

Hannah Spencer led the way with 15 points with 10 coming in first half. Becky Grivas came of the bench to score 11. Grace Fisher and Mallory Miller each had seven.

"We got great bench contribution again tonight," Hile said. "All of us were really good, especially in the first half. We did a good job at the foul line."

The Cubs led by as many as 24 in the third, and were still up 44-25 after the third. While the final margin was closer, Hile said the game was out of reach by that point and was not overly concerned.

In the end, it was simply a win the coach was happy to have.

"It's a good win for us," he said. "Rockville's a team that should have a better record than they do. They're big. They have some quickness. They have good shooters. And we just man handled them."

With two games left before Christmas break, Hile said his team has a chance to go into break with a .500 record, which would be big for the program.

The Tiger Cubs travel to Northview at 7:30 p.m. Monday.

At Greencastle

Rockville 4 7 14 11 -- 36

Greencastle 14 15 15 6 -- 50

Rockville -- Stout 6-11 3-4 16, McMullen 4-11 0-0 9, Greene 0-3 3-8 3, Camerer 1-1 0-0 2, Mahurin 0-2 2-2, Burgess 1-4 0-0 2, Sherron 0-3 2-2 2, Harper 0-3 0-0 0, Vukovits 0-2 0-0 0.

Greencastle -- Spencer 6-14 3-5 15, Grivas 3-5 5-7 11, Fisher 3-12 0-0 7, Hennette 2-3 3-4 7, M. Miller 2-5 2-2 7, Samuels 0-5 2-2 2, Alspaugh 0-7 1-2 1, O. Miller 0-4 0-0 0, Nobles 0-1 0-0 0

Next game -- Greencastle (4-6 0-1 WCC) visits Northview at 7:30 p.m. Monday.

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