GREENE COUNTY
The Greene County girls' basketball team got back on track against Aquinas High School last Saturday after a close 46-44 loss to Morgan County a week prior.
The Lady Tigers were able to dominate the Fighting Irish 58-36 in what was the team’s first region game of the year and second home game since the season started.
Since the team had a week to prepare, head coach Derrick Williams said the girls learned situational awareness to better equip them for potential close games down the road.
“I gave the girls Monday off because it was a long week last week, but we tried to work some situational stuff throughout the week,” Williams said. “The big thing for us was to just get back to the basics of what we do well. We decided that this group could play a lot of man-to-man because of their athleticism, and offensively did well running our sets.”
The defensive practice paid off, and Williams’ squad was able to hold Aquinas to 13 points less than Greene’s defense had previously been giving up per game at 49 points on average.
On top of their defensive tenacity, the Lady Tigers did a great job of spreading the wealth and facilitating the ball between all five players on the court.
Amauria West led the team with 12 points with Sonovia Reynolds, Dajah Hobes and Aliyah Roberts all contributing to the total with eight points each. Junior Erin Dixon also added six points on the offensive end and played a crucial role in the paint, getting rebounds when needed.
Williams believes the tough schedule the Lady Tigers have had to endure prior to last Saturday’s matchup will really benefit the girls once they get into region play against other Class 1A schools.
“Aquinas was the first 1A team we’ve faced all year, and that’s what I try to get people to understand. We purposely made our schedule the way it is, because we knew some of the teams would better prepare us for games down the stretch than some of our other 1A opponents would,” Williams said. “You could tell the girls had a sour taste in their mouths after the loss to Morgan that came on the last shot, so it’s good to see things look like they’re starting to come together.”
Greene County’s next game will be down the interstate when the Lady Tigers travel to Washington-Wilkes this Friday to take on the opposing Tigers in the team’s third region contest of the season.
Washington-Wilkes is currently undefeated; however, they have only played three games, and two of the wins came against Harlem, so the Lady Tigers will have the edge in experience.
Williams believes the away team will show up ready to play, and that his girls shouldn’t overlook them.
“You don’t hear a lot about them, but they challenged us in both games last year. I believe we only beat them by a couple of points both times,” Williams said. “They return pretty much their entire team which includes two post players with good size and a couple of scrappy guards, so it’ll be a good test for the girls.”
Ultimately, Williams’ team moved back to .500 on the year with last weekend’s win and hopes to continue the region success on Dec. 16 at Washington-Wilkes.