GREENVILLE – The Lady Wave threw a scare into the once-beaten Butler Lady Aviators, dropping a 34-29 Miami Valley League game to the 20-1 MVL first-place Lady Aviators.
“Anytime you can play with the top team in the league to five points, there is not much to hang your head on,” said Greenville coach Rachael Kerns. “Across the board, Butler is a team that gives up the fewest points in the league, and we gave them all they could handle tonight.”
The Lady Wave bolted out to an 18-5 lead, beginning with a Megan Loudy free throw, a Jayda Lyons six-foot jumper, a Megan Lind 6-footer in the lane, an Avery Baumann long jumper at 3:26 in the first for a 7-2 Greenville lead.
Loudy knocked down a long jumper giving the Lady Wave a 9-3 lead, Maddie Hutchens came off the bench to hit a jumper in the paint at 1:31 and followed up with a 3-pointer with four seconds on the first quarter clock giving the Lady Wave an impressive 14-5 first quarter advantage.
Twenty seconds into second quarter play, Lyons scored on a layup followed by a Lind layup, extending the Greenville lead to 18-5.
“Jayda Lyons was phenomenal defensively and offensively, and she had some great takes,” Kerns said.
Butler began working their way back into the game using a 16-3 scoring run to close out first-half play, sending the game to the halftime break with the teams knotted at 21-21.
“We scored early, and we struggled to score late,” said Kerns. “Not going to take anything away from Vandalia’s defense but we still got great looks in the second half, we just didn’t do a very good job converting them. To beat a really good team, those are the things you have to do.”
The Lady Aviators took period No. 3 by an 8-3 score to take a 29-24 lead to the final quarter of play.
Greenville opened fourth quarter play on a 5-0 run with an M. Loudy free throw knotting the score at 3:05. Butler answered with a basket to lead 31-29 at 1:19, and with time running down, the Lady Wave were forced to foul, giving the visitors a hard-fought five-point victory.
“Two minutes to go; it’s a tie ballgame,” Coach Kerns stated. “We lose by five and give them credit; they knocked down three free throws at the end to make the score a five-point game.”
“Our girls are doing a good job,” added Kerns. “We just need to find a way to finish, but the beauty is we’re giving ourselves a chance to be right there.”
Megan Lind led Greenville with eight points.
BOXSCORE:
BUTLER 34, GREENVILLE 29
Butler – A. Washburn 10, N. Stammen 7, E. Dady 7, D. Bardonaro 6, N. Smith 2, J. Brockert 2 – TOTALS 8 9-16 3 34
Greenville – M. Lind 8, J. Lyons 6, M. Hutchens 5, M. Loudy 4, B. Schmidt 3, A. Baumann 2 – TOTALS 11 4-10 1 29
3-POINTERS
Butler 3 (D. Bradonaro 2, A. Washurn 1)
Greenville 1 (M. Hutchens 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
05-16-08-05 34 Butler
14-07-03-05 29 Greenville
