Menu
SOUTHMONT GIRLS’ BASKETBALL REGIONAL PREVIEW: Tiger Cubs aim for second regional title in school history; Patriots look for first regional title of their own
After breaking a 10-year drought for postseason success, Greencastle has a new goal on the table.
That would be to bring home hardware that only one other girls’ basketball team in school history has to its name: a regional title.
To do so, the Tiger Cubs (22-4) will need to knock back the similar aspirations of Union County (16-9), a school looking for its first girls’ basketball regional title, when the two teams meet Saturday at the IHSAA Girls’ Basketball Southmont Regional set for 4 p.m.
The matchup will be the second of the day at Southmont with No. 8 Eastern Hancock (22-3) will face No. 9 University (20-4), the latter the two-time defending Southmont Regional champions, for a spot in the semistate round next week. The winners of the two games, as well as the winners at the Crawford County Regional, will be drawn into semistate pairings on Sunday.
The week of preparation for the regional round had gone by fast according to Greencastle head coach Doug Greenlee.
“Since Saturday, it’s been a fast-paced first part of the week,” Greenlee said. “We’ve been trying to find out info on (Union County), check on our own team and see how they’re doing physically and mentally and it’s been a quick week.”
The Three Tiger Cubs seniors, Stephanie Morales, Emma Hunter and Gloria Brewer, were pleased to be in their current position, even if the final had not played out as they had expected it to.
“Yeah, it’s pretty cool,” Morales said of being sectional champion. “(The final) was kind of a surprise as we thought it would be a lot closer.”
“It’s a pretty big difference between being on the winning side and losing side,” Hunter said, having played in a softball sectional final last spring. “Obviously it’s better to win one than lose one and this was a lot more fun having lost a sectional title game.”
“It’s a lot different,” Brewer added when asked about her first state tournament appearance. “The sectionals for homeschool are a lot different than the state tournament.
“Once you won state in homeschool, you still moved on to regionals. Here, when you lose, you’re done, so the stakes are a lot higher. It’s a lot more exciting; homeschool was exciting too, but this is exciting in its own way.”
The Patriots are an unknown for Greencastle with the two teams on opposite sides of the state, though Greenlee said there was a reason they had won back-to-back sectional titles.
“(Union County) beat the favorite (Northeastern) in the sectional,” Greenlee said. “They average about 40 ppg while we’re around 60 ppg and we wondered why that was the case, the reason being that they want to play slow.
“They’re not in a hurry, they don’t do a lot of fastbreaks, they like to run clock before they use their dribble-penetration, working the ball inside to Shelby Hill (10.2 ppg, 7.3 rpg), who is a good threat inside and outside. They have a senior guard (Brooke Fields) (6.2 ppg, 3.8 apg. 2.4 spg) who looks good on film.
“They run three guards, all of whom are on the smaller side, so they’re not a tall team but they’re quick and can dibble-penetrate pretty well,” Greenlee added.
As to how Union County plays, Greenlee said there were plenty of similarities to one of Greencastle’s county rivals, though with a unique style compared to most teams the squad had faced.
“(Union County) uses an offense similar to North Putnam with four out and a lot of dribble-penetration,” Greenlee noted. “North Putnam used five out but both look to get inside before kicking it out.
“They take time off the clock with each possession. It’s hard to pinpoint a team that does that; we haven’t really seen a team that wants it to be a low-scoring game, so we’re going to have to force the tempo.”
Having an idea of what to expect made preparing for the Patriots this week easier according to Greenlee.
“It’s a good thing,” Greenlee said about having seen similar offenses before. “A lot of teams do run four out with an inside player but it gives us confidence defensively as we’ve seen it before and defended successfully against it.
“We can’t give up the dribble-drive to the basket, help, hedge, keep the help side defense and keep an eye on the player in the middle. We just don’t know what is coming at us when we’re on offense.”
The senior trio also noted the similarities between the Patriots and Cougars.
“(Union County) is a lot shorter than we are, except for one girl (Hill) that I’ll have to guard,” Morales said.
“They beat a good team (Northeastern) to get here,” Hunter added. “You can’t overlook them.
“We feel pretty good matching up against them, though.”
“They run their offense a lot like North Putnam; a lot of dribbling around and penetration,” Brewer noted.
Defensively, Greenlee said Union County had shown several different styles and expected nothing to change this weekend.
“Watching three different films, we’ve seen a tight 2-3 zone, a 2-3 zone with a lot of pressure on the perimeter and man-to-man defense,” Greenlee said. “I’m guessing, having not seen a press, but they might use a junk defense against us.
“Regardless of who we’ve watched on film, the defense we’ve seen has been different so we expect anything and everything from them.”
While plenty of time has been spent preparing for the opposition, preparing for an afternoon start time was also on the table.
“I don’t like it,” Morales said about the 4 p.m. tip off.
“We’ll still do the same things we do normally for a game,” Brewer noted. “We’ll make sure to eat well beforehand.
“Get up nice and early, get our bodies moving but not too early,” Morales added.
Saturday will also be the first game outside of McAnally Center this potseason for Greencastle with the team having practiced at Southmont on Tuesday.
Greenlee said going over things step-by-step had been part of the process this week to not put too much on the players’ plates all at once.
“We’ve talked to them about everything that comes with this game as, in the state tournament, you stub your toe and you’re going home,” Greenlee said. “We don’t want that and we have to prepare mentally while still playing our style of basketball.
“The girls have been receptive but it is a different environment. It’s a different gym, a lot of variables that have to be considered and thought about. We’re not throwing everything at the girls all at once and have some things we’re still getting to as the week goes on.”
Greenlee said the team was confident in what they could do this weekend and wanted to make sure not to forget what allowed them to get to this point.
“I feel like we’re the better team and while that’s not going to win you any games, it does give us some confidence as long as we are focused on what we do and do well,” Greenlee said. “I’ve done this in the past and other coaches have done this in the past and that is focus too much on the other team.
“You can over prepare and then realize we don’t know what to do at the same time. We want to be sharp and know what we’re doing Saturday.”
As for the goals this Saturday, all three seniors said the aim was to keep playing another week but also to not be too caught up in the moment.
“Winning for sure,” Morales said. “We want to have a great time because it might be our last time. But we also want to have fun.”
“We just need to keep playing our game,” Brewer said. “As long as we stay cool, shots will fall.”
“We also need to keep our teammates up and not let them get down on themselves,” Hunter added.
The trio added the underclassmen were taking things in stride as well, not allowing the occasion to put them off.
“I feel they’re not as nervous because they have another year or two after this,” Hunter said. “They usually tell us not to play nervous.”
“Even then, they play as hard as they can for us,” Morales added.
Working hard for sure, but also ready for to have fun with the extra week available to them.
“We’re a very close, tight-knit team,” Hunter pointed out. “Maybe a little too tight at times.”
“We’re that tight we’re going to church this evening...to have a Nerf gun war,” Morales said.
Tickets for the regional are $10. The game will be broadcast on Giant FM WREB 94.3 FM as well as streamed by Southmont High School. The first game between Eastern Hancock and University will be streamed by the Eastern Hancock Sports Network. Links to the streaming broadcasts will be available on ihsaatv.org.