GREENVILLE — The offensive struggles continued for the Greenville Green Wave on Tuesday night, as the Wave came up short in a 54-34 MVL loss to the Sidney Yellow Jackets, a team that entered the night with just one win on the season.
“We did a lot of good things tonight — we came back,” said Greenville head coach Matt Hamilton. “But obviously, right after halftime, they made another run, and we got within striking distance again. At critical times where we could have tied or taken the lead, we couldn’t get it to fall, or we had a turnover. Overall, turnovers were better, but the timing of some of them was still bad. When we needed good possessions, we couldn’t get what we wanted.”
The teams played to a low-scoring 6-6 draw after one quarter before Sidney seized control in the second, outscoring the Wave 17-6 to take a 23-12 lead into the halftime break.
Sidney opened the second half with a three-pointer to push the margin to 26-12 with 7:32 remaining in the third quarter, but Greenville responded with its best stretch of the night. The Wave rattled off 13 unanswered points, trimming the deficit to just one at 26-25 with five minutes left in the period and forcing a second Sidney timeout.
“We went to our up-tempo full-court and half-court defenses to try to create some chaos and force turnovers,” Hamilton said. “We were able to do that, and it created some easy shots for us.”
The Yellow Jackets regrouped out of the timeout, closing the quarter on an 8-6 run to regain momentum and carry a 34-31 lead into the final eight minutes.
Despite being within striking distance, Greenville’s offense stalled in the fourth quarter. The Wave managed just one point over the first 7:52 of the period while Sidney poured in 20 points to build a commanding 54-32 advantage before Greenville added a pair of late free throws with eight seconds remaining on the game clock.
“We talk a lot about doing a better job in half-court situations — recognizing what we have,” Hamilton said. “We’re tracking our passes, and too many times it’s zero- or one-pass shots. We have to work the ball, be more patient, and trust each other. When we got under pressure, we forced shots.”
Johnny Barr led Greenville and all scorers with a game high 13 points, highlighted by two emphatic two-handed slam dunks.
With the win, Sidney improves to 2-7, and Greenville drops to 2-8 on the season.
BOX SCORE:
SIDNEY 54, GREENVILLE 34
SIDNEY – D. Burks 11, C. Widmark 10, D. Lee 9, K. Lee 8, D. Burns 6, C. Scott 6, M. Steenrod 4 – TOTALS 14 11-19 5 54
GREENVILLE – J. Barr 13, M. McMahon 11, I. Kerg 3, E. Flatter 2, L. Inman 2, D. Conway 2, G. Denham 1 – TOTALS 11 11-16 2 34
3-POINTERS
Sidney 5 (D. Burks 2, D. Lee 2, C. Scott 1)
Greenville 2 (M. McMahon 1, I. Kerg 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
06-17-11-20 54 Sidney
06-06-19-03 34 Greenville
