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Greencastle capitalizes against struggling Clovers 47-18
Emotions always run at high levels when two county rivals compete and that was definitely the case tonight. Greencastle defeated Cloverdale 47-18 and set up meeting with South Putnam in the final tonight.
Cloverdale and Greencastle showcased what being rivals truly mean For the Clovers; not being able to use one of their key players was definitely a hindrance.
Elizabeth Cheatham was sidelined due to an injury that happened earlier this week. However, Greencastle was able to welcome back a friendly face when Hannah Spencer, who had been on the bench due to an injury she sustained during the fall soccer season.
During the first quarter, the Lady Tiger Cubs were able to monopolize on the errors of the Lady Clovers.
With 4:52 left in the quarter, Hannah Spencer entered the ballgame and changed the tempo of the game. She helped by causing turnovers and getting the ball into the hands of her teammates who scored. Miscommunication and missed shots by Cloverdale were two of the major components that Greencastle used to end the quarter with a small 10-7 lead.
Going into the second quarter, Greencastle continued to dominate over Cloverdale. Cloverdale tried different strategies throughout the quarter but nothing seemed to work because the Lady Tiger Cubs continued to shut down the Lady Clover's offense and prevented them from scoring too many points. Cloverdale's bench called multiple timeouts to try to get back in the game and keep the team morale up, but Greencastle was too much and they went into the locker room on a negative note. When the clock ran out on the first half of the game, Greencastle led 22-9.
The third quarter was more of the Lady Tiger Cubs taking advantage of mistakes made by Cloverdale.
Chelsea Samuels and Cassie Alspaugh were key on getting rebounds, while Spencer and Tenille Burgeson came up with some big steals for Greencastle.
Cloverdale's Kristin McCammon and Sam Rightmyer were key components of the Lady Clovers' defense.
The Lady Tiger Cubs were awake and ready for anything the Lady Clovers handed them. Errors were the thing that hurt Cloverdale's effort. Missed shots and bad passes were major problems and allowed Greencastle to take a 34-10 lead in the third.
During the final quarter, Greencastle continued to play with energy and amazing teamwork, but that didn't stop the Lady Clovers. They continued to go after loose balls and cause turnovers, just not enough to turn the game around.
Mallory Miller and Burgeson both made coast-to-coast trips to score easy buckets while their teammates and Cloverdale tried to play catch up.
Greencastle ended the night victoriously 47-18 over Cloverdale.
Cloverdale head coach James Wade was proud of his team even though they didn't come away with the win.
"I'm so proud of the girls I can't blame for tonight's loss," he said. "We had the best week of practice we've had all year and worked really hard. As a coach, I didn't get them into the positions that they needed to be in to win. They have nothing to hold their heads down about. As far as Elizabeth, we are hoping that she's back before the conference schedule starts."
Greencastle head coach Glenn Hile was very pleased with the way his team played tonight.
"Cloverdale came out hard in the first quarter and I thought we were a bit sluggish at first and it took us awhile to find our bearings," Hile noted. "We found out that if we played man-to-man, we were going to get into foul trouble so we switched things around and got the ball rolling.
"Once we were able to get ahead, we played very well. We are happy to have Hannah back even though she doesn't have the stamina to play all game yet, having her back on the court still helps," Hile said
At South Putnam
Putnam County Tournament
Cloverdale 7 2 1 9 -- 18
Greencastle 10 12 12 13 -- 47
Individual Statistics
Cloverdale -- Franklin 7, McCammon 5, Shepherd 3, Rightmyer 2, McCallie 1
Greencastle -- M.Miller 13, Grivas 12, Samuels 6, Burgeson 4, Spencer 4, J.Miller 4, Nobles 2, Wainman 2.
Next game -- Cloverdale faces North Putnam in the consolation game tomorrow night at South Putnam beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Greencastle faces South Putnam in the championship game beginning at 8 p.m.