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North Daviess sweeps Eastern Greene in double-header
Tuesday night was a chance for Eastern Greene girls and boys basketball to show how far the programs have improved. Unfortunately, the games showed that the T-Birds still have some work to do to break into the top tier of the Southwestern Indiana Athletic Conference.
North Daviess won a defensive battle in the girls game, 36-24, while the Cougars won the following boys game 46-38.
In the boys game, the Thunderbirds had the size advantage with junior Bryan Rippy controlling the action in the paint all night for a game-high 17 points. While Rippy had a great game, North Daviess denied him the ball just enough and forced other players to score. The strategy worked as the Cougars scored eight of the final 10 points in the game. Rippy missed two shots from the post with under two minutes remaining that led to transition opportunities for the smaller and faster Cougars.
“We got outplayed today. You can’t win a ball game shooting 30 percent. We knew coming into tonight it was going to be a low-possession game and the team that valued every possession was going to win. We didn’t do that,” Coach Jamie Hudson said. “Until we learn to do that we are going to keep beating the mediocre teams but the top tier teams we’ll struggle with until we learn the concept of valuing every possession and getting the best shot down every time.”
With the score 42-36, Thunderbird senior Caleb Lindsey missed a 3-pointer from the corner that would have made it a one-score game. It was the last chance at an Eastern Greene comeback.
Eastern Greene led after the first quarter 14-9 and trailed by one at the half 23-22. North Daviess kept the momentum going in the third quarter and led 35-30 into the final period.
The T-Birds connected just twice from beyond the arc as the Cougars were able to pack it in to guard Rippy.
“That’s what we are going to see. Teams are going to double him, triple him, quadruple him like they did tonight, and hats off to North Daviess they had a good game plan and they executed their game plan. We gotta have guys step up and hit shots and they didn’t do that tonight,” Hudson said.
Senior Same Rees had nine points with seven in the second half. Jaylen Mullen had a team-high 13 points for the Cougars as Daryn Lengacher had (12) and Ike Wokford (10) were also double-digit scorers.
North Daviess is a perfect 6-0 on the year while Eastern Greene is 5-2. The T-Birds will play at Shelbyville tonight to conclude their five-game road swing.
The Lady T-Birds were down a couple players in the front-court as they were undersized vs. Cougars. The result was a struggle to find points as Eastern Greene finished with a season-low 24.
Sophomore Kenady Hudson had a team-high eight points but only one field goal.
“We are just not there offensively and we struggled really bad to rebound. We were just bad all the way around,” Coach Greg Burton said.
Burton will get some of his taller players back soon in Kira Padgett and Zoie Ault. Sophomore Bayden Inman stepped up in their place to at power forward for five points. Still, the T-Birds lack of height and length made scoring in the half-court difficult. North Daviess did enough to protect the ball to prevent points off turnovers for Eastern Greene.
Freshman Brnylee Perkins had a four-point play in the fourth quarter to cut the score to 25-23. North Daviess outscored Eastern Greene 11-1 in the final minutes though.
Making matters worse in the final minutes was a blown call by the referees as Hudson was called for her fifth foul. Hudson had to exit the game as the foul should have gone to her little sister in freshman Keylee Hudson. Down their top scorer, a T-Bird rally became impossible.
North Daviess had three in double-figures in Mya Knepp (12), Maddie Miller (10) and Madi Lengacher (10) as the Cougars move to 7-4.
Eastern Greene was coming off a back-to-back as it fell to Owen Valley Monday night 53-39. The T-Birds are 4-5 and next host Cloverdale Dec. 29.
Boys basketball
North Daviess 46, Eastern Greene 38
Eastern Greene stats
Bryan Rippy (17) 8-15, 1-3 FTs, Sam Rees (9) 4-8, Braydon Myers (5) 2-6, 1-1 FTs, Bryson Creager (5) 2-5, Caleb Lindsey (2) 1-2, Will Valentine (0) 0-2
3-pointers: Rees (1), Creager (1)
North Daviess stats
Jaylen Mullen (13) 6-10, 1-2 FTs, Daryn Lengacher (12) 2-3, 8-9 FTs, Ike Wolford (10) 4-5, 1-1 FTs, Bryce Collins (3), 1-1, Alex Steffey (2) 1-4, Lance WIlson (1) 0-5, 1-2 FTs,
3-pointers: Mullen (1), Collins (1), Wolford (1)
Girls basketball
North Daviess 36, Eastern Greene 24
Eastern Greene stats
Kenady Hudson (8), 6-8 FTs, Brynlee Perkins (6) 1-1 FTs, Bayden Inman (5) 1-2 FTs, Indy Workman (2) 2-2 FTs, Mia Uland (2), Keylee Hudson (1) 1-2 FTs
3-pointers: Perkins (1)
North Daviess stats
Mya Knepp (12) 4-7 FTs, Maddie Miller (10) 6-7 FTs, Madi Lengacher (10) 3-4 FTs, Hayley Beuhler (2), Hadley Parisien (2) 0-1 FTs
3-pointers: Lengacher (1)