Greencastle comes up short at Monrovia

Saturday, February 7, 2009

MONROVIA--Greencastle's girls struggled to score in the second half against Monrovia and it send them down to a 43-31 defeat in a West Central Conference basketball game at Branch McCracken Memorial Gym.

The Tiger Cubs (8-10, 4-2 WCC) were in control at halftime, leading 24-10, but had only seven points in the second half. They made 2-of-22 shots from the field including 0-of-6 on 3-pointers and were 3-of-15 at the free throw line in the third and four quarters.

"They got in our face defensively and we didn't handle it very well," Greencastle coach Glenn Hile said. "The got good ball pressure on (point guard) Cassie (Alspaugh) and it messed our timing up. We just got out of sync. The thing that killed us was we didn't get anything out of the post. We average about 20 points a game there (with Becky Grivas and Chelsea Samuels). We didn't get good shots in there. Monrovia bodied up on us.

"Mallory (Miller) had a great first half and it was the reason we were up. She knocked down big shots. But in the second half, Monrovia got a body on her and her shots were short."

Miller had 15 points, all in the first half. The 5-foot-6 sophomore was 5-of-8 from the field, 3-of-5 on 3-pointers, and 2-of-3 at the foul line in the opening two quarters. Miller was 0-of-6 in the second half, 0-of-2 on 3-poiinter.

Grivas had a game-high 16 rebounds, but scored only three points. Samuels scored one.

Greencastle made only 6-of-22 (27.2 percent) free throws in the game.

"You can't win games shooting 6-of-22 at the free throw line," Hile said. "We're a 64 percent team normally. If we had made some free throws, Monrovia would have made the offensive runs it did."

The Bulldogs (8-11, 5-1 WCC) were 4-of-29 shooting from the field, 0-of-8 on 3-pointers, in the first half. They made 12-of-25 field goals including 2-of-4 3-pointers in the second half. Monrovia was 9-of-15 at the foul line for the game.

Monrovia started the second half with a 13-0 run to move within one, 24-23.

Greencastle scored its first point of the third period on Grivas' free throw at 1:23 for a 25-23 lead.

Alspaugh's 8-foot jumper in the lane gave Greencastle a 27-25 advantage at the end of the third period.

Monrovia took the lead at 30-27 on Shelby Rednour's 3-pointer from the top of the key with 7:20 remaining.

Greencastle hung tough, trailing 36-31 with four minutes left. But the Tiger Cubs went scoreless from there.

At Monrovia

Greencastle 8 16 3 4 -- 31

Monrovia 2 8 15 18 -- 43

GREENCASTLE (31)

Grivas 1-6 1-6 3, Alspaugh 2-5 0-0 4, Samuels 0-7 1-4 1, M. Miller 5-14 3-7 15, Spencer 2-9 2-5 6, Nobles 1-2 0-0 2, Wainman 0-0 0-4 0, Totals 11-43 6-22 31.

MONROVIA (43)

Porter 4-12 1-4 9, Rednour 1-8 2-2 5, Standeford 3-6 0-0 6, Engel 0-2 0-0 0, Dillon 3-12 1-3 7, Knieper 4-11 5-6 14, Vondersaar 0-0 0-0 0, Kaiser 1-3 0-0 2, Totals 16-54 9-15 43.

3-point field goals -- Green 3-12 (M. Miller 3-7, Alspaugh 0-2, Samuels 0-1, Spencer 0-1, Nobles 0-1), Mon 2-13 (Knieper 1-4, Rednour 1-5, Dillon 0-4). Rebounds: Green 39 (Grivas 16, Alspaugh 6), Mon 36 (Standeford 10, Kaiser 6). Turnovers: Green 7, Mon 7. Total fouls -- Green 17, Mon 19. Technical foul: Spencer. Fouled out: Standeford.