GREENFIELD — The first game of the 2024 portion of the season will be one to learn from for the Greenfield-Central girls basketball team.
The good news is, along with a teaching tool, the Cougars got a victory.
In a battle with three-win Perry Meridian, Greenfield-Central outscored the Falcons 18-12 in the final quarter to pick up a 53-48 win at Dellen Automotive Gymnasium Tuesday.
The win was the Cougars seventh in their last eight games.
They’re 13-4 on the season, but Tuesday’s win was a struggle against the 3-15 Falcons.
“I know they’ve had some injuries along the way, but they definitely looked like the better team for the majority of tonight,” Greenfield-Central coach Bradley Key said. “Give Perry credit. They hit some shots. Their shooter (Aubrey Hall) was back tonight. She had missed some games, but we knew before the game she’s a good shooter, but we still didn’t get out and cover her.
“That’s something we have to work on if we want to be able to compete for a sectional, or to win another game, honestly.”
Hall went 6-for-6 on 3-point field goals through the first three quarters. She had all 12 of her team’s first-quarter points.
Greenfield-Central led 15-12 after the opening period, but trailed at halftime (27-23) and heading into the final quarter (36-35).
In the fourth quarter, Perry’s Izzy Egan hit a 3-pointer to put the Falcons up 43-40 with 6:11 to go. On the next possession, Greenfield-Central’s Jalyn Smith was fouled. She missed both free throws, but junior teammate Madison Sonsini got the rebound putback to cut the lead to one.
After a stop on the defensive end, G-C junior Chaney Brown scored the next time down to give the Cougars a 44-43 lead. A steal and bucket from freshman Izzy Silcox made it 46-43 with 5:02 to go.
The Cougars led 47-43 when Perry Meridian, with buckets from Ally Raymer and Egan, battled back again to tie it, 47-47 with 2:54 remaining. It was the sixth tie of the game.
G-C regained the lead when Smith quickly answered for her only field goal of the night. The Cougars led 49-47 with 2:40 remaining. It was the 11th and final lead change.
Greenfield-Central junior guard Brooklyn McConnell, who had a team-high 16 points, and Sonsini combined to hit 4 of 5 free throws down the stretch to seal it.
“I do think we have talented basketball players and we did hit some shots when we had to,” Key said.
He added, “That’s a good film to go back and watch and try to get some things corrected. If we don’t get that corrected we’re going to take what was a pretty good season and it’s going to kind of fall flat. We’ve worked too hard for that.
“We got out of there with a ‘W’ which is always good and we’re at 13 wins, which is tremendous. We’ve got to figure out a way to get back to doing what we were doing at the beginning of December when we’re knocking off the New Pals and the Shelbyvilles. We’re capable of playing better basketball. Our girls could have collapsed (Tuesday), because we were down. We fought back.”
Following McConnell with 16, Sonsini finished with 14. Brown scored 12.
Hall finished with a game-high 21. She didn’t miss a 3-point attempt until the fourth quarter. She hit 6 of 8 tries on the night. Egan finished with 11.
Greenfield-Central is off until a Jan. 12 contest in a girls-boys Hoosier Heritage Conference doubleheader, at home, against New Castle.
–
Greenfield-Central 53, Perry Meridian 48
Perry Meridian;12;15;9;12;—;48
Greenfield-Central;15;8;12;18;—;53
Perry Meridian (3-15): Izzy Egan 3 4-4 11, Mariah Thomas 1 2-2 4, Kaleigh Butts 0 2-2 2, Aubriana Haugh 2 0-0 4, Aubrey Hall 7 1-2 21, Ally Raymer 2 0-0 4, Aliysa Baird 1 0-0 2. Totals: 16 9-10 48.
Greenfield-Central (13-4): Chaney Brown 5 2-3 12, Jalyn Smith 2 0-2 4, Madison Sonsini 4 5-7 14, Brooklyn McConnell 6 3-4 16, Izzy Silcox 3 0-0 6, Addi Herrin 0 1-2 1, Kalyn Moss 0 0-0 0, Leilani Forshey 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20 11-18 53.
3-point goals: Perry Meridian 7 (Hall 6, Egan); Greenfield-Central 2 (Sonsini, McConnell).
