GREENVILLE – The Lady Wave earned a 43-30 Senior Night win over the Piqua Lady Indians on MVL Saturday afternoon play.
“It was a fun senior night game to play today,” said Greenville coach, Rachael Kerns. “Credit to our girls because we have had a rough January and February so it goes to show we haven’t quit.”
Greenville honored three seniors before the tipoff including No. 5, Jaydn Norris, No. 14, Ella McLear; and No. 23 Ava Loudy.
The Lady Wave jumped out to an early 5-0 advantage at 4:54 in the first quarter only to have the Lady Indians reel off 10 unanswered points to lead 10-5 with 2:39 showing on the game clock. Greenville used a 6-0 run to close out first-period scoring to lead 11-10.
“They came out with a defense we weren’t ready to see, we hadn’t seen much of it and we were making it look really good,” Kerns noted. “We needed to spread it out.”
The Lady Wave used a Brooklyn Schmidt layup taking a 13-10 second-quarter advantage. Piqua answered with a 4-1 run cutting Greenville’s lead to 15-14 followed by a Megan Loudy 3-pointer pushing the Lady Wave lead to 18-14. A Schmidt jumper in the paint closed out first-half scoring sending the teams to the break with Greenville holding a 20-14 advantage with the Lady Wave defense holding to Piqua to four second-quarter points.
“I don’t think the average person understands how good at defense Jayda plays,” Coach Kerns stated. “She truly can shut people down. She covers up a lot of things for us and our whole goal today – Piqua come in and has been playing good basketball and we wanted to make their non-shooters have to shoot. The girls did a great job of knowing who to cover and when to leave people open. We knew we were going to give up open shots, we were going to make them get them from the ones that normally don’t shoot them.”
Leading 21-16 at 6:19 in the third, Greenville went on a 7-0 run to lead 28-16 with the teams headed to the final period of play with the Lady Wave up 32-19.
“In the second half, we put Brooke at the high post and when you throw Brooke the ball there isn’t anyone that can go get it over her,” said Kerns. “We put ourselves in better situations to take care of the basketball. We did a good job of executing what we were able to control and it always helps when we make a few baskets.”
“We did a great job of handling the ball and they committed so many fouls that third quarter,” added Kerns. “We got to the free throw line – we could have blown the game open if we would have made more free throws.”
Maddie Hutchens hit a basket for a 34-19 GHS lead followed by back-to-back layups from Avery Baumann and Megan Loudy to double up on Piqua with a 38-19 score. A Jayda Lyons basket at 4:37 gave Greenville a 40-21 lead on the team’s way to an impressive double-digit MVL win.
Is she not just so fun? People have no clue what she does defensively even if she’s not rebounding she’s altering so many different shots – she’s incredible
“An unusual group of seniors this year,” said Coach Kerns. “Ella McLear medically hasn’t been able to be with us. There was a good chance she wasn’t going to play but she still wanted to be a part of the program. That says a lot about our program and Ella. It’s a long season to go to practice every day, go to these long away trips and she was at everything. We appreciate Ella being around and we wish her the best going into her spring sport and hopefully, Bluffton is a great fit for her.”
“Jaydn Norris played for us as a freshman and she played all the time on JV,” Kerns said. “Our biggest regret with Jaydn – she took two years off. Jaydn could have been a nice basketball player. She brings some size and athleticism to practice but again she’s one we haven’t had for about a month because of an injury. It was nice she was able to get some minutes today but just looking back I wish she could have been around for four years.”
“Ava Loudy is one of the most special players to ever play for Greenville,” said Kerns. “She understands her role, she’s kind of the team mom. She makes sure everybody is where they’re supposed to be, what time they’re supposed to be there. Ava does a lot of things so I don’t have to. I’m going to miss Ava more than Ava has any idea. She’s a special kid. I’m so glad she’s one that stuck it out for four years.”
Still missing from the Lady Wave lineup due to an earlier season injury, the team’s leading scoring and second-leading rebounder, junior Megan Lind was on the bench in uniform but not playing.
“Megan did warmups today – she looked good in warmups,” said Coach Kerns. “This was a fun win and without Megan Lind, to have other people step up and continue to get better it’s a huge jump for where we’re going next year.”
Greenville 5’3” freshman Megan Loudy led Greenville and all scorers with a game-high 12 points.
With the win, the Lady Wave closed out regular season play with a 6-16 overall record and 3-15 in conference action.
BOXSCORE:
GREENVILLE – M. Loudy 12, B. Schmidt 9, M. Hutchens 8, A. Baumann 6, S. Loudy 4, J. Lyons 2, A. Baumgardner 2 – TOTALS 11 12-25 3 43
PIQUA – L. Spradlin 9, A. Bean 8, A. Brookhart 5, D. Cooper 4, A. Carroll 4 – TOTALS 7 10-12 2 30
3-POINTERS
Greenville 3 (M. Loudy 2, A. Baumann 1)
Piqua 2 (L. Spradlin 2)
SCORE by QUARTERS
11-09-12-11 43 Greenville
10-04-05-11 30 Piqua
