Greencastle girls are JV County Champions
CLOVERDALE-- Just as its varsity counterpart, the Greencastle girls' JV team is the Putnam County Champions. The Tiger Cubs were able to overcome South Putnam in the championship game at Cloverdale on Saturday, 38-10.
After one quarter the Eagles were still in contention. They did a good job of pressuring the Tiger Cubs whenever Greencastle tried to take the ball into the paint. The two teams went into the second quarter 6-2 with Ally Nichols scoring for South Putnam and Mia Stevens, Gracie Smith and Brynne Shuee scoring for the Tiger Cubs.
"We were real excited about the way we played on defense," SPHS JV coach Mike Ricks said. "We felt like when we got back in our halfcourt defense we were really good. But in the second half we made some turnovers and it kind of got away from us."
Ricks was also excited to see South's JV get its first win of the season to make it to the championship round.
As for Greencastle, who still had to contend with the Eagle defense during the second quarter and only scored six to South Putnam's two by Savanna McIntosh, they turned it on in the third quarter and really took control of the game.
"We started out well," Greencastle JV coach Matthew Welker said. "It did get a little sloppy in the second quarter. South Putnam had a good game plan to try and slow us down a little. Into the second quarter and then the second half I thought our players kind of relaxed and took that deep breath and got back to playing solid basketball."
That solid basketball led to 18 points in third while only allowing one point via a foul shot by South Putnam's Deanna Bishop. Despite the fourth-quarter three by Logan Hawkins and the bucket by Bailey Beggs, Greencastle easily took the win and the championship.
"It was fun," Greencastle sophomore Mia Stevens said. "I was kind of scary in the first half, but we picked it up and started scoring so that was good. I think almost everyone scored and we are working better as a team now."
The GHS JV team now moves to 9-1 and will be looking to continue that dominance as the season wears and also continue the fun that winning brings.
"I love playing basketball with the girls," sophomore Gracie Smith said. Smith fueled the turnover battle for Greencastle with seven steals. "We came in and we were really wanting to win and it worked out. It takes hard work and intensity. Our team really has that. We have three great leaders and all the other girls step up. We mesh really well together and work really hard together. We never see anyone not working hard."
At Cloverdale
Greencastle 6 6 18 8 -- 38
South Putnam 2 2 1 5 ¬-- 10
Team Stats
Greencastle South Putnam
FG 18-54 4-30
FT(%) 1-2 (50%) 2-4 (50%)
Fouls 7 11
Rebounds 22 24
Assists 5 3
Steal 16 3
Individual Stats
Greencastle: Shuee (4-7) 10 pts, 6 reb, 1 asst, 1 stl; Smith (4-12) 8 pts, 7 stl, 1 asst, 1 reb; White (3-6) 6 pts, 3 reb, 1 stl; Stevens (3-14) 6 pts, 1 reb, 1 stl; Nally (2-12) 2 pts, 5 reb, 2 blk, 1 stl
South Putnam: Hawkins (1-6) 3 pts, 1 reb, 1 asst, 1 stl; Nichols (1-5) 2 pts; Beggs (1-2) 2 pts, 1 reb; McIntosh (1-5) 2 pts, 9 reb, 2 blk; Bishop 3 reb, 1 stl; Hazlett (0-4) 2 reb; Trump (0-2) 1 reb, 1 asst, Rector (0-4) 5 reb; Erickson (0-2) 2 pts, 1 stl