After trailing 18-19 at halftime, the Greenville girls basketball team held Vandalia to just two points in both the third and fourth quarters.

“We just stuck to the gameplan, and that’s defense,” Greenville girls basketball coach Kyle Vanover said. “Defense is going to win the GWOC North, and we gave up four points in the second half. Anytime you do that you’re going to be right where you need to be at the end of the game.”

Greenville built a 13-7 lead in the first quarter with Megan Galloway, Tara Guillozet and Haleigh Luce – all of whom ended the night in double-digit scoring – leading the offensive charge.

Greenville’s offense slowed down in the second quarter as the Lady Wave were limited to one basket from Galloway and a 3-pointer from Luce. Meanwhile, Vandalia had its best quarter of the game, scoring 12 points – more than half of its offensive output on the night – in the period to gain a 19-18 halftime advantage.

“It’s kind of how we expect,” Vanover said. “It’s going to be tight for a while then hopefully we can adjustments to where we can get it done.”

Coming out of halftime down one point, Greenville went on a 19-0 run to take a commanding 37-19 lead. The trio of Galloway, Guillozet and Luce once again led the way with Erin Albright adding a couple baskets in the final 90 seconds of the third quarter. With just 16 seconds left in the quarter, Butler got its first points of the second half to make it 37-21 entering the fourth quarter.

Greenville was able to communicate, get in the right positions and limit Vandalia’s shots to shut down the Aviator offense in the second half, Vanover said. The Lady Wave also limited Vandalia’s ability to cut to the basket, which it was able to do in the first half, he said.

“We did all those things in the second half, and it showed,” he said.

Greenville got off to another strong start in the fourth quarter, scoring the first 12 points of the period to build a 49-21 lead. Vandalia did manage a couple free throws in the final few minutes of the game as the Lady Wave closed out the win with a 28-point margin of victory.

Vanover said he wishes Greenville could outscore every opponent 33-4 in the second half like it did Wednesday night.

“That just comes from kids starting to have confidence in shooting, finding the open shot, when they have the open shot having the confidence to knock it down,” he said.

Galloway led Greenville with 18 points in the game. Luce scored 13 points, Guillozet scored 12, Albright scored six, and Jessica Kerg added two.

Galloway, Guillozet and Luce all have the potential for big scoring nights, Vanover said, and Wednesday night they all were shooting well.

“It was one of those nights,” he said. “I kept telling the girls, we’ll fire on all cylinders one of these games, and when it happens it’s only going to go up from there. Tonight was one of those games where everybody kind of had the hot hand.”

Greenville is now 7-7 overall and 3-1 in the GWOC North. Greenville returns to action with another divisional game Saturday at Sidney.

“Right now our kids have thought about this win, and it’s over,” Vanover said. “We’ve got to get to Sidney.”