By Drew Terhall
DailyAdvocate.com
GREENVILLE — Two steps ahead, one step again for the Girl Wave basketball workforce. After a 2-0 begin, Greenville drops their first recreation of the season, 46-23, to final yr’s MVL champion Sidney on Nov. 29 at residence.
Head coach Rachel Kerns mentioned the workforce realized fairly a bit from this one. After being down massive at halftime, the workforce outscored the Yellow Jackets, 19-18. Kerns mentioned not solely did the workforce not quit, they began to only flat out play higher.
They confronted a troublesome process going up towards a proficient group in Sidney.
“Sidney has three unimaginable guards and they might play for any workforce in our convention. If you find yourself a younger workforce, I mentioned very early on we’re going to take two steps ahead, take a step ahead and two steps again. That is your good instance of it,” Kerns mentioned.
Sidney led 28-4 at halftime. The Girl Wave struggled going up towards the on ball stress protection from the Girl Yellow Jackets.
As the primary half went on, they began to commit much less turnovers however couldn’t capitalize on the uncommon scoring alternatives they acquired.
However within the second half, the protection for Greenville began to ignite the offense.
Kerns mentioned the workforce began out in a field and one to fight towards the shooters of Sidney, one thing they haven’t finished but this season. Within the second half, they have been in a zone that gave Sidney some issues.
The Girl Wave began to get some turnovers and convert these into factors. Kerns mentioned it’s all studying on protection as they’ll change how they play on that finish with who they’ve accessible on the time.
Kerns highlighted the defensive effort from sophomore Jayda Lyons. She was tasked with going up towards junior Jordan Scully who had 20 factors in Sidney’s win over Russia.
Kerns mentioned Lyons had an ideal recreation defensively and made life troublesome for Scully when she was in.
“She scored 4 factors when Jayda wasn’t in. She hit a shot proper on the finish of the quarter. She acquired zero clear pictures off of Jayda. I believe she hit seven threes in recreation one and I don’t know if she acquired seven clear appears to be like tonight,” Kerns mentioned. “Kudos to Jayda, that’s a tough process to do.”
Scully had 10 complete factors within the recreation and was second on the workforce in scoring.
The principle factor Kerns mentioned the workforce realized was they want extra ladies capable of deal with the ball. She mentioned junior Avery Baumann does an ideal job operating the purpose guard place, however they want extra ball handlers.
She additionally mentioned it’s an entire different factor for the women to study on desirous to have the ball and making a play with it exterior of simply setting a display or simply capturing it.
“We want one other guard, we’d like one other woman who desires the ball and who can deal with the ball. Avery does an ideal job, but it surely’s very easy to protect one individual,” Kerns mentioned. “That was a problem for a few of our different ladies.”
On the optimistic facet, Kerns mentioned they’ll have time to work on that ability as many of the workforce can be again subsequent season.
Baumann led the workforce in scoring with six factors. She made two three-point pictures within the second half. Freshman Megan Loudy had 5 factors whereas juniors Megan Lind and Brooke Schmidt every had 4 factors. Lyons and junior Maddie Hutchens every had two factors.
Kerns mentioned she was pleased with how the workforce responded within the second half. It’s a step in the direction of the suitable course early on within the season. She did hope to be a bit extra aggressive on this one.
“I hoped to compete a bit bit extra. However, for those who inform me we had the second half that we have now earlier than the sport begins, I’m going to say, ‘ what, with such a younger workforce that’s most likely an okay factor.’ Pissed off as a result of I do know we will play higher than what we did within the first half,” Kerns mentioned.
The workforce will subsequent play on Dec. 8 at Butler for a convention matchup. The sport is slated for a 6:15 p.m. tipoff.
Contact Each day Advocate sports activities editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]