Greencastle aims to write new chapter against strong 2A South semistate opposition

Friday, February 17, 2023
With head coach Doug Greenlee looking on, Greencastle’s Gloria Brewer looks for a pass against a defensive set from assistant coaches Naira Caceres Martell (left) and Samantha Call (right) during a semistate week practice. The Tiger Cubs will face Forest Park in the opening game of the IHSAA Shelbyville Semi-State Saturday morning at 10 a.m. North Know will face Eastern Hancock at noon with the winners to play for the semistate title at 8 p.m.
Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT

With a week to prepare for Union County, Greencastle ran through plenty of scenarios for last week’s IHSAA Girls’ Basketball Southmont Regional.

Leading by 19 at halftime was probably not one that was practiced too long.

The Tiger Cubs (23-4) rode out an eventual rally from the Patriots to win 58-38 and advance to Saturday’s IHSAA Girls’ Basketball Shelbyville Semi-State, facing defending 2A state champions and No. 2 Forest Park (23-3) in the first game at 10 a.m.

Greencastle head coach Doug Greenlee was as surprised as any of his players on the way the first half played out but also credited the team for making it happen.

“I felt like our man-to-man defense was the reason we were successful,” Greenlee said. “We knew (Union County’s) offense pretty well, their personnel pretty well and had a size advantage over them at most positions.

“My halftime talk was that they’re going to come back and I wish I was wrong but they did. They showed why they had won 16 games and a sectional championship in the second half.

“They were a gutty team and if we didn’t do a few things right, it could have been worse,” Greenlee added. “Evie (Briones) hit a couple of huge momentum-killing threes and got the lead back out to 12-13 points.

“Union County used up all its energy to get to that point and things changed in the final few minutes.”

While the comeback may have been expected, having to go through the experience was something the Tiger Cubs had not been subject to often during the 2022-23 season but it was an experience Greenlee said would be important going forward.

“You’ll see a lot of things like that in a win-or-go-home tournament and that was a perfect example of it,” Greenlee said of the second-half comeback. “(Union County) had to fight for their lives and pushed us pretty hard.

“But as I said in the pep rally afterwards, this team will bend but not break. We’ve been used to playing from ahead in a lot of our games. Danville and Sullivan were exceptions; Indian Creek was even and until the last couple of minutes and the game with the Golden Arrows was a 65-64 last-second loss in overtime.

“That said, we have to be prepared, at this level, to be able to comeback if we need to,” Greenlee added. “That’s not how we’re going to approach it: we’re going to continue to do the things we do and hope it’s enough.”

Along with Forest Park, the Shelbyville Semi-State also features No. 1 North Knox (27-1) taking on No. 8 Eastern Hancock (23-3) in the second game at 12 p.m. The winners of the first two games will face off in the semistate final at 8 p.m.

“The South is pretty strong with the teams it has left and even the teams that got beat last weekend,” Greenlee said about the quality of opposition at the semistate. “It leads me to believe the winner of this semistate has a good chance to win it all and we hope that’s us. We don’t know who the favorite is come out of the North.”

The Rangers, who defeated North Knox in the regional final last year, University in the semistate and Frankton 52-44 in the 2A State Finals in 2022, return four of five starters and feature a senior-laden starting lineup and rotation that averages 48.8 ppg while only allowing 29.8 ppg on the defensive end.

Miami (OH) commit Amber Tretter (6-01, 16.4 ppg, 8.7 rpg, 2.8 apg, 1.8 spg) leads from the front, having been named an Indiana Junior All-Star last year and is active anywhere on the court.

Lydia Betz (5-10, 10.3 ppg, 3.2 apg), who is signed to Cedarville University, is a long guard with range while Carley Begle (11.1 ppg, 5.5 rpg) plays as a solo presence in the paint when Tretter is handling the ball and plays off her fellow post player when both are on the inside.

“Forest Park is very aggressive on the boards both offensively and defensively,” Greenlee said about the Rangers. “They have a tall girl (Tretter) who is athletic, leads them in scoring, plays the point in the half-court trap and double-team defenses, is very active, shoots a lot of threes.

“They have three girls (Tretter, Betz, Begle) that were nominated by their coach in the Hoosier Basketball Coaches Association and all three were voted as All-District and All-Stars to be on those teams. Gloria is also on that team.

“They have three top-quality players, seven seniors, four of whom were starters on their state-winning team a year ago and they have a lot of confidence,” Greenlee added. “It’s our job to take that confidence away from them to get them to think that Greencastle is here to play.”

Seniors Erica Werner, Lydia Betz, Danielle Eckert, Gabey Gray and Alivia Gehlhausen, along with juniors Katlyn Betz, Ashlyn Dilger and Grace Sutherlin rounding out the lineup. Gray, Lydia Betz and Eckert all return as prominent members of the state finals squad.

One promising aspect for Greenlee was the way Brownstown Central, who Forest Park defeated in the regional, played the Rangers, using the three-point shot to not only turn around an early deficit but even take a lead in the fourth quarter.

“(Brownstown Central) came back with the three and Forest Park is going to look at our stats, see where our scoring comes from and they will be ready for that,” Greenlee said. “What tends to happen is that Gloria’s penetration tends to free people up.

“That’s a reactionary thing and while they’ve talked about it and practiced it, it’s hard to shut that down in the game because there’s a tendency for teams to gravitate towards her and when that happens, there’s Evie and Emma spotting up. When that happens, Gloria will find them.”

Should the Tiger Cubs win the opener, they would face either the Royals or Warriors in the final, though thinking that far ahead was something Greenlee said the team was concerned with at this point.

“We saw Eastern Hancock live but we can’t think about them or (North Knox) at all,” Greenlee said. “We’ll get to watch the second game at 12 p.m. so that will be a good scout as we’ll see everything.

“In-between sessions, we’ll get a chance to watch more film and study then, but we’re not going to do too much of that before because this first game is all important.”

While the historical ramifications of playing in a semistate for the first time in 43 years were large, Greenlee said the girls were relaxed about being in the spotlight and were focused on the here and now given the task laid out in front of them.

“The more pressure you put on a team, the worse they will perform in terms of laying expectations to do this or that on them,” Greenlee said. “The girls know the importance of this game and all that stuff; they’re exited about the 1980 team and they’re excited about that.

“I don’t think any of us are going to be ready for the environment there as (Forest Park) has a large following as state champions. The noise level at Southmont was pretty good and it was hard to communicate on the floor at times. All those things are different at this level and we just have to get through that.”

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