The South Greene girls found a new gear in the third quarter on Friday night and used it to run away from Chuckey-Doak on the way to a 62-49 win in front of a packed house on Rebel Hill.
“It was kind of an up and down night. We got off to a flat start, and we survived the second quarter,” South Greene coach Stephen Gregg said. “We changed some things up on defense and that proved to be huge in the second half. I thought we had some good individual performances, and we had some girls make some big shots. But I felt the biggest thing I was proud of was that we outrebounded them 43-27. That has been something we have really focused on, and maybe they are buying in.”
The Lady Rebels were running the floor, jumping passing lanes and knocking down shots from all over the place as they scored 24 points in the third period. That allowed them to build a lead the Lady Black Knights could not overcome.
The second half started with the Lady Rebels leading 23-17, and that narrowed to 27-22 after Chole Kirkpatrick put in five points for Chuckey-Doak.
What followed was a 14-0 run by South Greene over the next 3:23. Kortnei Bailey started things by driving the lane and dishing to Neveah Davis for a short jumper. Bailey then scored the next six points by driving through traffic, getting loose in transition and finally putting back a miss.
Ari Hoese followed with a pair of three-pointers that put South Greene in front 41-22.
Bailey and Hoese combined for 33 points in the second half while Chuckey-Doak scored 32 points as a team. Bailey led all scorers with 27 points on Friday, while Hoese scored 12 points, all in the second half.
“Those two missed a lot of time in the first half, but they came out and made up for it in the second half,” Gregg said. “I think it bothered Kortnei to get those early fouls. I think she really wanted to play hard in the second half because of that. She’s capable of doing that every night, and it was good to see she wanted the ball. Ari was huge there in the third quarter as well.”
Chuckey-Doak answered with eight straight points, but Davis got the Lady Rebels going again with a three-pointer before Hoese scored three points the hard way for a 47-29 lead.
Kirkpatrick ended the third quarter with a triple for Chuckey-Doak that closed the gap to 47-32.
South Greene’s biggest lead of the night came at 56-36 with 5:44 left to play after Hoese and Bailey each struck from behind the arc.
Chuckey-Doak followed with a triple from Kirkpatrick and an old-fashioned-three-point play from Myers, but it was not enough to change the outcome as the Lady Rebels secured the 62-49 win.
In Friday’s early action Chuckey-Doak took command first and after Carlene Bishop knocked down a three-pointer the Lady Black Knights led 6-2
Bailey kept pace with six points for South Greene, but she picked up her second foul and spent the final 10 minutes of the first half on the bench.
South Greene tied things at 9-9 when Madison Fillers made a layup, but with 0.3 second on the clock Cristen Bishop was fouled and made two free throws for an 11-9 Chuckey-Doak lead.
South Greene had to go deeper into its bench in the second quarter as three starters sat with two fouls, but they were able to swing in front.
On the first possession of the new period Davis hit from deep to put the Lady Rebels in front for the first time at 12-11.
Myers gave the lead back to Chuckey-Doak by going the length of the floor for a layup.
South Greene got five points from Fillers and four from Samantha Birdwell to take its biggest lead of the first half at 23-15.
Myers led Chuckey-Doak with 15 points in the contest, Kirkpatrick had 12 points, and Cristen Bishop added 11 points.
South Greene improves to 4-0 in District 1-2A play and will complete the first rotation through the league schedule on Tuesday when it takes on Johnson County who is also 4-0. Chuckey-Doak falls to 1-3 in league play.
“The main thing is this is a conference win,” Gregg said. “We have one more game with Johnson County before we complete the first cycle through the league. There is not much time to celebrate because Johnson County is playing well and they are 4-0 too.”
