GREENFIELD — There were signs of promise for the future along with signs of why they’ve struggled.
Greenfield-Central and Lapel each won their season openers to start the 2020-21 campaign, but both had lost five in a row heading into Thursday’s matchup at Greenfield-Central High School.
Something had to give between two varsity girls basketball teams desperate to get back in the win column.
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The teams with identical overall records played to a tie at the end of regulation and the first overtime, but the Cougars were able to get the game-winning shot from sophomore Aryana Hibbard, who connected on a 3-pointer with 42 seconds left in the second overtime for the final points in G-C’s 53-52 win.
“We’ve seen that in practice and we’ve been asking Hibb to step up a little bit more,” Greenfield-Central coach Bradley Key said. “It was good for us to see that. If we’re going to win some more games we’re going to need her to continue to play great defense and knock down shots. That was a great shot and a big play for us.”
Hibbard showed her solid defense at a crucial time in the first overtime. Down 47-45 with seconds winding down, she got a steal, fed senior Addison Hill, who found fellow senior Brooke Herrell for an easy layup. It tied the game 47-47 with just 11 seconds to go, forcing the second overtime.
“It didn’t look good,” Key said. “You preach in practice, ‘Don’t ever give up.’ When something like that happens, you hope they continue to buy in and work. We’ve got great kids that work hard. I’m happy for them. That would’ve been a tough one to swallow.
“We haven’t been up on a team like that. You learn a lot going forward. Hopefully when we get in that situation again we can put them away.”
Lapel led by three points, 52-49, with less than 90 seconds remaining. Herrell drew a foul and hit 1 of 2 free throws to cut it to one. Hibbard, after another Bulldogs turnover, followed with the go-ahead shot.
Both teams turned the ball over a lot.
Greenfield-Central had 30 turnovers and Lapel had 32. Both had hit double figures by the end of a sluggish first quarter. G-C lead after one, 4-1, but had committed 10 turnovers. Lapel had 11 first-quarter errors.
Both teams showed their promise in the middle periods.
Hill, who led all scorers with 19 points, scored off a set play to start the second quarter, and it appeared to give the struggling Greenfield-Central offense some life.
The Cougars shot 70 percent from the field (7 of 10) in the period. Hill had nine points in the second eight minutes of the game and 11 at the half. G-C led by as much as 17, 22-5, before a late Lapel run cut it to 24-11 at the half.
“We’ve seen flashes of playing good basketball. It’s just stringing that together. That’s what you’re going to have with a team that hasn’t played a ton of basketball,” Key said. “Tonight, you could see we were trying to do the right things, but when you get in a tight close game some of the silly mistakes you make are magnified. You saw that tonight.”
The third period was all Lapel. The Bulldogs hit five 3-pointers, from four different players, and cut the Cougars lead to 34-31 heading into the final stanza.
Lapel’s Ashlynn Allman scored with 22 seconds remaining to tie the game 43-43, forcing the first of two extra periods.
Lapel took its first lead of the game in the first overtime. Allman scored during the first minute of the extra session for a 45-43 Bulldog lead.
Key praised the play of senior starters Hill, Herrell and Caroline Gibson, who the coach said played her best game before fouling out in the fourth quarter.
“I can’t say enough about Brooke, Addie and Caroline. I thought they were amazing games tonight,” Key said.
“It was definitely a big game for us,” Hill added. “We’ve been on a losing streak. We needed to get this game to get on a roll and start winning some games here soon.”
Herrell followed Hill in the scoring column with 15. She was 3 of 3 from the field in the second quarter. Gibson had five points and seven rebounds.
Off the bench, Zoe Solis scored six points, hitting 6 of 8 at the free-throw line.
Hibbard, a sophomore, scored seven points, all in the second half.
“It was awesome,” Hill said of Hibbard’s offensive output. “We’ve been looking for people to step up and help us score so we can win some games. It was awesome to see her score well tonight and hit the game-winning shot.”
Lily Daniels led Lapel with 18 points. Deannaya Haseman had 11.
