By JON WEBB
Glasgow Daily Times
GLASGOW — Glasgow head coach Chris Crain made a few predictions before the basketball season began.
Despite posting a 4-22 record in 2008-9, Crain said his Lady Scotties would finish second in the district standings and utilize a newfound experience to rise in the Region. The Lady Scotties would go on to make Crain look like Nostradamus, but the rise ended on Tuesday with a 50-44 loss to Greenwood in the first round of the Region 4 tournament at Diddle Arena. Crain blamed Glasgow’s 19 turnovers and 33 percent shooting performance for the season-closing defeat.
“I thought there were some crucial times in the game where we didn’t take care of the ball and turned it over a little too much,” he said. “I thought that was the difference in the game, and I thought Greenwood did a good job capitalizing on our mistakes.”
Those mistakes almost didn’t matter. After falling behind 42-31 with just 5:07 remaining in the matchup, Kelsey Greer and Haley Perkins collaborated on a 9-1 run that shredded Greenwood’s lead to three at the 2:07 mark. The advantage would eventually dip by another point, but empty Glasgow possessions shut the door.
“Give our kids credit. They didn’t hang their heads and made a surge there at the end of the fourth quarter,” Crain said. “They played hard to get back in it and went down with a fight.”
Greer certainly didn’t give up. The freshman point guard led the Lady Scotties with 22 - half of the team’s total offensive output - and was responsible for 11 of the 13 scored in the final stanza.
“(Greer) did what she does best there at the end,” Crain said. “It was a great surge by Kelsey at the end of the game, but we just came up one possession short.”
Thanks to Shelby Ray, such an outcome didn’t seem likely in the first quarter. The sophomore guard opened the game with a three-pointer from the left wing to give the Lady Scotties an initial advantage. Greenwood’s Meagan Bridges answered with a bomb of her own a minute later, but a trio of Ray free throws and two from Greer erased any answer and handed the Lady Scotties an 8-3 lead with 4:20 remaining in the first. The Lady Gators outscored Glasgow 8-2 over the next three and half minutes before a quarter closing Haley Perkins half court heave provided a 13-11 Lady Scottie lead at the end of one.
A Shalika Smith score at the onset of the second increased that lead to four, but any lasting Glasgow momentum from the Perkins shot was soon rendered nonexistent. Greenwood rattled off eight consecutive points to go up 21-15 with 4:48 left until halftime. Whitney Williams and Greer responded with a field goal and three-pointer, respectively, but all first-half offense would end there. Both teams left the scoreboard unchanged for nearly four minutes, giving Greenwood a mildly-uncomfortable 21-20 cushion at halftime.
Glasgow was unable to reclaim the lead in the third. An early bucket from Perkins and a Greer free throw kept the Lady Scotties within two before a quick Greenwood 5-0 run pushed its lead to seven at the 4:31 mark. Two consecutive three-point plays — one by Smith, one by Greer — quickly evaporated the advantage, but a three-pointer by Samantha Sergent and field goal from Molly Lamb sandwiched a Greer score to keep the Lady Gators in front by four with the fourth-quarter looming.
Greenwood’s lead nearly tripled in less than three minutes due a stanza-opening 7-0 run. A would-be Greer three-point play and Perkins jump shot quickly reigned in the Lady Gators and sliced the advantage to seven. Bridges began the rebuilding process with a free throw at 3:07 to re-up the lead to 43-35. Greenwood’s hope for a smooth last three-minutes evaporated, however, when Greer, channeling her inner Reggie Miller, scored five points in 11 seconds to render the matchup a one-possession game with a hair more than two minutes remaining. A Lady Gators foul shot corresponded with two by Greer to bring the Lady Scotties within a field goal at the 1:42 mark.
Thanks to Glasgow’s defensive pressure on the ensuring Greenwood possession, Greer intercepted an errant pass at half court. A series of passes landed the ball in the hands of Perkins, who drove the right baseline and shot, hearing a whistle as the ball again found the floor. The call went Greenwood’s way, and the charging foul relegated Perkins to the bench for the remainder of the contest.
The Lady Gators held Glasgow without a field goal the rest of the way to secure the win and move on to the second round of the Region tournament.
Greer was the only Lady Scottie to score in double figures. Perkins followed with seven, while Ray added six and Smith five. Williams scored two in her final game as a Lady Scottie. The loss also ended the high school basketball careers of Hannah Burd, Shawn Smith and Courtney Taylor.
The season proved a fitting end for the seniors, though. The Lady Scotties finished the year at 19-10, walked away with the school’s first District 15 championship since 2007 and boasted a 4th Region All “A” Classic title. Crain said the team’s relative youth could bring additional accolades in subsequent seasons.
“That’s the good news and the bad news,” he said. “The bad news is we’re losing four seniors this year, but the good news is we have a great core coming back, a great nucleus to draw from.”
Scoring
Kelsey Greer 22
Haley Perkins 7
Shelby Ray 6
Shalika Smith 5
Kennedy Bailey 2
Whitney Williams 2
