GREENVILLE – Greenville pulled away in the fourth quarter Friday night to defeat West Carrollton 72-54 in a matchup of Greater Western Ohio Conference boys basketball teams.
While Friday’s game wasn’t perfect, Greenville coach Kyle Joseph was glad that his team was able to get a victory despite not playing its best.
“I told the guys it wasn’t perfect tonight,” Joseph said. “Wasn’t really what we wanted but it’s a lot more fun to win and learn from those mistakes than to lose and have to learn from your mistakes.”
Greenville got off to a good start with a 16-10 first quarter lead. Aaron Rich paced the Green Wave in the opening quarter as he scored the team’s first 6 points.
Greenville continued to hold the advantage until midway through the second quarter when West Carrollton put together a 9-1 run and took a 25-24 lead – its first of the night.
West Carrollton led for less than a minute as Greenville got back on track with scoring from Rich and Peter Pandey to go into halftime up 32-29.
In the third quarter West Carrollton battled back and tied the game at 38-38. The Green Wave didn’t surrender the lead this time as Isaiah Gable made a basket and free throw with just under four minutes remaining in the period to give the Wave a lead they held the rest of the night.
“That’s kind of been a theme all year,” Joseph said. “We haven’t been able to put really four full quarters together, but we settled down some in the fourth quarter. It really started on the defensive end getting stops and then getting out and running and finishing.”
After going into the fourth quarter up 49-45, Greenville outscored West Carrollton 23-9 in the final period to win 72-54.
Pandey led Greenville with a season-high 22 points.
“He’s always in that 8 to 12 range,” Joseph said. “He’s a guy that really presses a lot. We’ve been on him about you’re a good player just let the game come to you. Tonight I would guess that of those 22, I think they were all layups and free throws. I don’t think there was anything other than layups and free throws. He’s a great athlete, and he gets it to the rim. He did a real good job of that and teammates getting out and running and teammates finding him in transition.”
Also for the Green Wave, Rich scored 20 points, Gable scored 8, Devin Hendrix scored 6, Marcus Wood scored 5, Trae Wood scored 5, Will Coomer scored 2, Kyle Mills scored 2, and Noah Vanhorn scored 2.
Jayden Evans led West Carrollton with 11 points. Also for the Pirates, Dariane Matthews scored 10 points, Veshawn Champion scored 8, Jordan Joseph scored 6, Taylan King scored 6, Jalen Sanders scored 5, Josh VanScyoc scored 4, Darius Berry scored 2, and Kyle Taylor scored 2.
Greenville improved to 6-3 with Friday’s win while West Carrollton fell to 0-11. The Green Wave will play host to Coldwater on Tuesday.
