GREENVILLE – The Green Wave hosted the Butler Aviators in a Tuesday night MVL matchup in a game the visitors would win by a 50-41 score with the difference coming at the free throw line.
“We never quit,” said Greenville coach, Matt Hamilton. “We got down and we kept fighting. We have to continue to learn and gain that experience.”
Tristen Vandervort gave Butler an early 3-0 lead canning a 3-pointer with Greenville getting back-to-back triples from Eric Brenner and Jarrod DeMange to give the Wave a 6-3 advantage at 5:12 in the first. The Aviators used an 8-3 scoring run to close out first quarter play to lead 11-9 after one period of play.
A DeMange 2 point basket followed by a DeMange triple with 4:30 on the second quarter board gave Greenville a 14-13 lead at 4:38 in the second quarter of action. The visitors took advantage of a 9-0 run to close out first half play taking a 22-14 lead at the break.
“For some of these guys just overall experience, playing together just to know what it takes to make a defensive stand when we need it, calm down, get a good offensive possession when we need a bucket,” Hamilton stated. “We’re not quite there yet.”
Period No. 3 had Butler gaining a point on the board taking the quarter 16-15 and a 38-29 advantage to the fourth quarter. Haiden Livingston paced the Wave in third quarter play with 7 points including a 3-pointer.
The two MVL teams played to a matching 12-12 fourth quarter score giving Butler a 9 point conference win.
“Never a night off (playing in the MVL),” Hamilton noted. “What we want everybody to start to know is that they better come to play when they play Greenville because we’re going to be ready every night.”
Livingston led Greenville with 13-points, all coming in the second half while Vandervort was leading Butler with 13 points. Butler was 9-18 at the charity stripe for 50 percent shooting. GHS went 2-8 at the line for 25 percent accuracy.
BOXSCORE:
BUTLER 50, GREENVILLE 41
BUTLER – T. Vandervort 13, AJ Holderman 10, D. Oliver 9, E. Ables 6, D. Motter 6, D. Collins 4, Wright 2 – TOTALS 16 9-18 3 50
GREENVILLE – H. Livingston 13, D. Hamilton 8, J. DeMange 8, E. Brenner 6, C. Drew 4, E. Massie 2 – TOTALS 12 2-5 5 41
3-POINTERS
Butler 3 (AJ Holderman 2, Vandervort 1)
Greenville 5 (J. DeMange 2, Brenner 2, Livingston 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
11-11-16 12 50 Butler
09-05-15-12 41 Greenville
