GREENVILLE – The Greenville girls basketball team moved into a tie for first place in the Greater Western Ohio Conference North Division Tuesday night with a 42-31 win against Troy.

Greenville improved to 5-1 in the GWOC North, and 9-7 overall, with Tuesday’s win. The Lady Wave are now tied atop the division with Troy, who previously was undefeated in the GWOC North but now is 8-9 overall and 5-1 in the GWOC North.

Tuesday’s victory was very big for the Lady Wave, just one year removed from a season in which they went 3-18 overall and 1-9 in the GWOC North, first-year coach Kyle Vanover said.

“For this program, to where we’re trying to get it as a coaching staff, this is the type of win you want, and that’s what we’re excited about,” he said.

Troy’s only lead of the night came early in the first quarter. The Trojans never led by more than two points, with their last lead at 5-4.

Greenville used its post players early in the game to take the lead from Troy, with Megan Galloway scoring eight points in the opening quarter and Erin Albright adding two. Tara Guillozet also hit a 3-pointer to give Greenville a 13-7 first quarter lead.

The second quarter was a defensive struggle as only six points were scored in the period. Troy scored the first four and pulled to within 13-11. Greenville got its points in the final seconds of the half, with Galloway putting Greenville up 15-11.

“They just do a great job defensively,” Vanover said of Troy. “I mean they pack it in. If you go back and look at any of their scores online, they keep it in the 30s. That’s what they try to do so we knew if we could get into the 40s, we could probably win the game. You know 42-31, that’s exactly kind of like we expected it.

The scoring picked up in the third quarter with Greenville taking a 27-19 lead. Galloway led the way for the Lady Wave with six points in the quarter while Albright, Guillozet and Haleigh Luce each added two.

Greenville led by at least six points throughout the fourth quarter, with Galloway, Guillozet, Luce and Paige Tester all scoring for the Lady Wave as they finished off the GWOC North win.

“They played well. We had a little motivation coming into this game just based on our last time we played them,” Vanover said, referencing Greenville’s 47-42 loss to Troy on Dec. 22. “And we knew if we got tonight, we could kind of control our destiny. It’s in our hands. We see the apple at the top of the tree; it’s are we going to keep fighting and get it? And that’s what these girls’ motto is; they want to go get it.”

Galloway led Greenville with 18 points on the night. Also for the Lady Wave, Guillozet scored 11, Luce scored seven, Albright scored four, and Tester scored two.

Vanover also was very pleased by the team’s defense.

“Our goal defensively is not 40; 31, that’s that’s a great defensive night, and we played man-to-man the whole time,” he said.

Greenville returns to action Saturday at Versailles with a noon start for the junior varsity game.