GHS girls fall on last second shot

The Greencastle Tiger Cubs girls' basketball team welcomed the Cascade Cadets to their home floor on a blistering cold Friday night for a conference showdown.

Greencastle lost on a last second shot, 56-53. The win gives the Cadets the 2013-14 West Central Conference title.

GHS (9-6, 2-1 WCC) and CHS (11-5, 5-0 WCC) played tight for the whole game but in the end senior Roxanna Gaddis made a shot to seal the win for Cascade.

"First of all, give the credit to Cascade. The fans that came got exactly what they paid for. That was a really good girls high school basketball game," Greencastle coach Bradley Key said.

The Tiger Cubs were down by two points with 33 seconds left in the game when sophomore Allison White got the ball inside, turned and put up a shot. It fell in and she was also fouled on the play.

White missed the free throw, which would have given the Tiger Cubs the lead, and the Cadets rebounded it and headed down the court. Instead of calling a timeout, Cadet head coach Don Helmick put the tied game in the hands of his players.

Greencastle played great defense and disallowed Cascade to get the ball inside to senior leader Sydney Stein, who had 21 points on the night. Cascade was forced to take a tough shot around the perimeter.

With three seconds left in the game, Gaddis got the ball at the top of the key and with a hand in her face, shot a three without hesitation. She made the shot as the buzzer sounded to put the Cadets up by three.

The officials conversed and decided to put .9 seconds back on the clock. On the ensuing Greencastle inbounds play, the ball was knocked away and time expired to hand Greencastle its first conference loss.

"I told the girls I am proud of them, there are a couple basketball things we can work on but as long as we lay it on the line like that a coach can not ask for much more, Key said.

The Tiger Cubs played very well despite the loss and have much to be proud of.

Despite the cold temperatures outside, Greencastle senior Alex Basile and Gaddis were both red-hot from deep. Basile shot 10-for-13 from the floor including 6-for-9 from downtown for a game high of 27 and Gaddis scored 15 points, all via the 3-point shot.

"Basile is a senior and this game really meant a lot to her, she played unbelievable. Callan Taylor is just going to battle and battle and battle, I could not be more proud of those two especially and really the whole team," Key said.

On the night there were a combined 49 3-pointers shot mostly due to the height of Greencastle and 18 went in. Basile and Taylor had eight of those.

"We knew coming in that they would be putting up a lot of shots. Our main concern coming in was to try and stop Stein. For being 5'8' she is very tough in the post and we knew that. She burnt us in the first half and had 12 points. Then they started to knock down shots and give Gaddis a lot of credit, what a great shot by the senior who steeped up and hit it. Our girls were moving and talking but Gaddis just hit a great shot," Key said. "It was not an easy three, she was not open we had someone there."

The Tiger Cubs only scored nine points in the first quarter due to the fact that the press by the Cadets was so effective.

"In the second half we did a little bit better of moving the ball and finding the open man. They took away the way we were breaking it and give credit to the girls for starting to break it other ways. A lot of that was Basile and Taylor talking to each other and moving the ball around," Key said.

This was one of the closest games for the Tiger Cubs on the year and it can only help them come tournament time.

"You never want to be happy after a loss, but our girls fought and I have been looking for that effort for a while. If we can continue that going forward good things will happen for us going forward," Key said.

At Greencastle
Cascade 13 15 13 15 -- 56
Greencastle 9 18 14 12 -- 53
Scoring
Cascade (56): Stein 21, Gaddis 15, Stinnett 10, Smallwood 6, Collier 4. Total: 11-22 (9-26) 7-10, 56.
Greencastle (53): Basile 10-13 1-1 27, Taylor 4-10 2-2 12, A. White 2-6 2-4 7, Bragg 0-3 3-4 3, Lenihan 0-6 2-4 2, M. White 1-3 0-0 2, Bridgewater 0-3 0-1 0. Total: 17-44 (9-23) 10-16, 53
Rebounds-offensive
Greencastle (21-5): Lenihan 5-0, A. White 4-0, Bragg 3-2, Taylor 3-1, Bridgewater 3-0, M. White 2-1, Basile 1-1. Cascade (30-9).
Turnovers: C 17 G 16; Assists: Taylor 4, Bridgewater 2, Basile 1, Lenihan, M. White. Steals: Basile 4, Bridgewater 3, Lenihan 2, Taylor 2.