GREENVILLE — The once-beaten Parkway Lady Panthers arrived in Greenville with a 9–1 record — their lone loss coming against Versailles — and left with win No. 10 after a 47–20 non-conference victory over the Greenville Lady Wave.
“That’s a really good team,” said Greenville first-year head coach Shane Hillard, a veteran of the game. “When you watch us win or lose, we’re having a really good season. We’re building and setting a foundation — building something the younger ones want to be a part of, so we can start getting more girls involved. Even if you play other sports, that’s great. I couldn’t ask for a better team for my first year to start building a program and setting a foundation.”
The tall, physical, and quick Lady Panthers set the tone early, leading wire to wire after taking the opening quarter by a 10–2 margin.
Greenville turned in its best defensive effort of the night in the second quarter, holding the Lady Panthers to single-digit scoring. Leah Force knocked down two baskets for four points, and Sara Loudy added two, but Parkway still edged the period 9-6, sending the teams to the halftime break with the visitors leading 19-8.
“When you run into a team like this and you miss a defensive rotation or have a key turnover, they’re always going to take advantage of it,” Hillard explained. “We went four straight trips down the floor where different people missed a defensive rotation, and we paid for every one of them in the first half. Hopefully, they learn how important those details are as we get into the back half of the season and understand how important every possession is.”
Parkway widened the gap in the third quarter, outscoring Greenville 15–6 to extend its lead to 34–14. Jayda Lyons accounted for four Lady Wave points in the period, while Force added her sixth point of the night.
The Lady Wave scored six points for a third straight quarter in the final frame, but Parkway closed out the night with 13 fourth-quarter points to secure the win.
Hillard used the fourth quarter to give younger players valuable varsity minutes, with the starters enthusiastically cheering on the freshmen and sophomores.
“I’ve been around long enough — not only in basketball but in the school — to know when things are fake, and that wasn’t fake,” Hillard said. “That’s why I enjoy being here. That is a family. They were genuinely happy for those younger ones getting minutes, waiting on one of them to score so they could celebrate.”
“They’ve been there,” Hillard continued. “A lot of those players were once the young ones dying to get on the floor, so they understand it. What we saw was real — they really care about each other, and that family atmosphere is what makes it so fun.”
Greenville will look ahead quickly, hosting Sidney on Wednesday night in a rematch of an earlier-season triple-overtime loss to the Lady Yellow Jackets.
“We have a quick turnaround — arguably one of the biggest games of the season for us, the Sidney game,” Hillard said. “We’ve been waiting on this one since that triple-overtime game, so hopefully we’re ready.”
Megan Hughes led Parkway and all scorers with a game-high 15 points. Force came off the bench to lead the Lady Wave with six points.
BOX SCORE:
PARKWAY 47, GREENVILLE 20
PARKWAY – M. Hughes 15, B. Bruns 14, H. Stover 6, L. Nichols 4, M. Stover 3, C. Smith 2, M. Nichols 2, A. Williamson 1 – TOTALS 15 11-18 2 47
GREENVILLE – L. Force 6, J. Lyons 4, S. Loudy 4, A. Baumgardner 2, E. Hammaker 2, T. Holzapfel 2 – TOTALS 8 4-5 0 20
3-POINTERS
Parkway 2 (H. Stover 2)
Greenville 0
SCORE by QUARTERS
10-09-15-13 – 47 Parkway
02-06-06-06 – 20 Greenville
