Greenfield-Central guard Brooklyn McConnell drives to the basket in Tuesday’s sectional matchup against Pendleton Heights.
Stacy Muffler | For The Daily Reporter
By Brady Extin | Daily Reporter
FORTVILLE – An already difficult matchup for the Greenfield-Central girls basketball team to open up IHSAA sectional play was made even tougher in the final days leading up to the game.
Without their leading scorer — Chaney Brown — able to play, the Cougars fell 57-20 to Pendleton Heights in the opening round of Class 4A Sectional 9 at Mt. Vernon High School.
Brown, who averaged 14.3 points per game and was beginning to come on strong with 16 and 23-point performances to close out the season, suffered a knee injury in the late stages of the Cougars’ 37-34 win over Southport last Thursday.
“She wasn’t able to extend it or put a lot of weight on it. We were hoping to get her back, but just health-wise, it wasn’t going to happen,” Greenfield-Central head coach Bradley Key said. “She’s one of the toughest kids, so it hurt her because she wanted to be out there, but safety-wise it just wasn’t the move.”
With the Cougars’ offense down the closing stretch of the season running through Brown, it was a difficult task for Key and the coaching staff to try and game plan without her on the floor.
“It was tough, and we didn’t know for sure if she was going to be out,” Key said. “We just talked to the kids and told them that everybody gets coached the same way, everyone gets coached hard. We were hoping to hit some shots, and we did in the early part of the game.”
Greenfield-Central opened up the game with two quick 3-pointers from senior Aryana Hibbard and sophomore Jalyn Smith to take a 6-4 lead, but from there, the Arabians’ sister duo of Kaycie Warfel and Whitney Warfel took over the game.
The Arabians’ two leading scorers reeled off seven straight points to grab the lead back and never let the Cougars get back within striking distance.
“The Warfel sisters are really good. They’re not just average players,” Key said. “Kaycie’s averaging over 20 points per game, so when you let her get out in the open court it’s tough.
“Defensively, we were wildly undersized. That’s a Pendleton team that’s got more length than us, and they started to break us down. Kudos to them. That’s a well-coached team, and they played hard.”
Another Hibbard 3-pointer to open the second quarter cut the Pendleton Heights’ lead back down to four, 15-11, but without Brown, the Cougars’ offense stalled there.
Led by nine Kaycie Warfel points, the Arabians outscored G-C 22-2 the remainder of the quarter to take a 37-13 halftime lead.
“We talk about how every possession matters. We got a little lackadaisical, took some quick shots that led to some transition points, and things just started getting out of control quickly,” Key said. “Not having Chaney hurt. It’s someone that we can go to in a pinch and she’ll get us a bucket or two.”
After cutting the lead to 15-11, the Cougars were outscored 42-9 the remainder of the way.
To try and limit the Warfel sisters, Greenfield-Central played a zone defense and forced Pendleton Heights to shoot. A normally poor 3-point shooting team, averaging under three makes a game and shooting 22 percent from range, the Arabians knocked down eight long balls.
“It’s easier said than done. You look at a year worth of film, you look at stats, and you think your best option is to sit in a zone and hope they miss some shots,” Key said. “They haven’t been the greatest 3-point shooting team. That’s not a knock on them, they just haven’t shot the ball really well compared to other teams. Tonight, they shot the ball well. You run into that and couple that with us struggling to score, it just wasn’t our night. That’s basketball, and that’s just life sometimes.”
Kaycie Warfel led all scorers with 18 points, and Whitney added 14.
One of the three seniors on the team, Hibbard, led the Cougars with eight points. The other two G-C seniors, Kammi Anderson and Taylor Smith, both found the basket as well. Anderson hit two free throws, and Smith hit one.
“Aryana battled the whole night. Kammi won the last few games for us with winning plays. Taylor had a great game tonight, and I thought she played hard. She’s been our vocal leader and knows the most about what we’re trying to do,” Key said. “These three seniors just turned this program around. They were the group to do it, and I’m forever thankful for them.”
The Cougars’ 14-10 record was their first winning season and the most wins in a season since 2016-17, when they finished 17-11.
“I’m proud of this group. Fourteen wins is the most wins we’ve had since Katie Helgason was running the point here, and that’s a girl that’s in the (Greenfield-Central) Hall of Fame,” Key said. “It’s taken a lot to get this program back on track, and I think this group of seniors did exactly that. They stuck with us.”
–
Pendleton Heights 57, Greenfield-Central 20
Greenfield-Central;8;5;3;4; — ;20
Pendleton Heights;15;22;14;6; — ;57
Greenfield-Central (14-10): Brooklyn McConnell 1 0-0 2, Aryana Hibbard 2 2-2 8, Taylor Smith 0 1-2 1, Kammi Anderson 0 2-2 2, Katie Holmes 0 0-0 0, Jalyn Smith 1 0-0 3, Emma Nelson 1 0-0 2, Juliann Jones 0 2-2 2. Totals: 5 7-8 20.
Pendleton Heights (15-9): Kaycie Warfel 8 0-0 18, Whitney Warfel 6 0-4 14, Berkley Shelton 3 0-0 6, Olivia Jones 3 0-0 6, Skylar Baldwin 4 0-0 9, Ava Phillips 1 0-0 3, Mikala Ross 0 1-2 1. Totals: 25 1-5 57.
3-point goals: Greenfield-Central 3 (Hibbard 2, J. Smith 1), Pendleton Heights 8 (K. Warfel 2, W. Warfel 2, Jones 2, Phillips 1, Baldwin 1)
