Defense got the job done for South Greene on Friday night as the Lady Rebels got back on track in a 42-27 win on the road at West Greene.
The win avenges a 50-47 loss to the Lady Buffaloes two weeks ago and snaps a four-game losing streak for the Lady Rebels.
“We executed a lot better on both sides,” South Greene coach Stephen Gregg said. “I felt like we were very coachable tonight. We learned from the last time that we played them and changed up some defenses. I’m really pleased that we could hold a team to 27 points. The girls are buying into playing harder, and that showed tonight.”
West Geene scored the first five points on Friday in the first 1:30 with Emily Justis sinking a triple and Joie Shipley laying one off the glass. Five minutes elapsed before West Greene scored again, but South Greene only managed five points in that same stretch.
The Lady Buffaloes led again at 8-6 when Shipley was good from the charity stripe, but the quarter closed with the game tied at 8-8 after Natlie Foshie sank two free tosses.
Both defenses continued to have the upper hand in the second quarter with Shipley closing off the lane for West Greene while the Lady Rebels played tight on the perimeter.
It took more than three minutes for either team to score but Ari Hoese put South Greene in front with a runner from the left side. Hoese put South Greene in front 13-10 when she knocked down a three-pointer from beyond the elbow.
Shipley answered with a driving layup for West Greene, and it looked like the game would go to halftime with South Greene leading 13-12. Foshie had other plans and after the Lady Rebels rolled in an inbound pass with 1.7 seconds remaining she sank a half-court heave that put South Greene in front 16-12.
With 4:51 left in the third quarter Morgan Brown sank a pair of free throws to close the gap to 17-16.
A big part of South Greene’s defensive game plan on Friday was to slow down Brown, and the Lady Rebels limited her to just six points. Another part of the game plan was slowing down Shipley, who was held to two points in the second half.
“I think the last time we played Shipley had 22 points and 19 rebounds, tonight she had nine and eight. That was a key, we had to slow her down. Then Brown is such a good player and we held her to six points. We did what we had to do on the defensive end,” Gregg said.
Foshie got South Greene’s offense going by turning a steal into a layup and Kortnei Bailey followed by slashing through the lane for a 21-16 lead.
West Greene cut the lead to 21-19 when Payton North sank a triple, but the final 10 minutes were controlled by the Lady Rebels.
Bailey started things with a transition layup, and Hoese scored five points to send the game to the fourth quarter with the Lady Rebels leading 30-23.
In the fourth quarter South Greene held West Greene to just four points while on offense Bailey scored six points and Foshie added four on the way to a 42-27 win.
Foshie and Bailey each scored 11 points on Friday for South Greene while Hoese scored 10 points.
Shipley and Norton each scored nine points for West Greene.
