GREENVILLE – The Versailles Tigers earned a non-conference 63-48 Saturday night win over Greenville in non-conference play on the Green Wave’s home court.
“It was tough, they grind it out, a lot of good stuff,” said Versailles coach Travis Swank. “They are ultraly aggressive, very handsy, it was very tough out here. Our kids kept our poise very well and did the right things for us to win.”
We competed well, said Greenville coach Matt Hamilton. “Turnovers weren’t bad, but we made other mistakes that you can’t make against a team that executes at a high level.”
Greenville took a 14-11 lead at 3:12 in the first, with the teams setting on a Wave 17-15 advantage after one-quarter of play led by six Johnny Barr points. Blake Monnin paced Versailles with eight first-period points, and Jace Watren canned two Versailles 3-pointers good for six Tigers’ points.
“We needed them to step up from the outside and hit shots for us,” Swank said of Monnin and Watren. “We’ve been struggling from there a little bit.”
The Green Wave pushed its lead to 19-15 at 6:58 in the first before Versailles closed out second-half play on a 19-5 scoring run to lead 34-24 at the break. Versailles’ Carson Bergman, Watren, and Monnin each drained a trey in the second run.
Greenville battled back, taking the third quarter 11-8 with the teams going to the final period of play, with the Tigers holding a seven-point 42-35 advantage.
“We are trying to focus on getting the ball inside to multiple different guys,” Hamilton said. “We allowed that to stretch us out of the paint and got us out of our game plan a little bit.”
Versailles put the game in the win column, winning the fourth 21-13 and earning a 15-point road win.
“We have supreme confidence in a lot of our kids,” Coach Swank stated, “and it showed here tonight.”
Versailles was 19-24 (79 percent) at the free-throw line. Greenville went 8-18 (44 percent) at the charity stripe.
We want to get to the line a lot and make a lot,” Swank said.
Watren led Versailles and all scorers with a game-high 20 points, followed by 19 Monnin points.
BOXSCORE:
VERSAILLES – J. Watren 20, M. Monnin 19, D. Ahrens 7, J. Borchers 6, C. Bergman 5, E. Wilker 2, C. Ahrens 2, M. Stonebraker 2 – TOTALS 13 19-24 6 63
GREENVILLE – M. McMahon 11, J. Barr 9, L. Hocker 8, I. Kerg 6, D. Hamilton 5, O. Mcgreevey 4, D. Conway 4, L. Jasenski 1 – TOTALS 14 8-18 4 48
3-POINTERS
Versailles 6 (J. Watren 3, B. Monnin 2, C. Bergman 1)
Greenville 4 (M. McMahon 3, L. Hocker 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
15-19-08-21 63 Versailles
17-07-11-13 48 Greenville
