Greenfield-Central’s Addi Herrin defends against Lapel.
Tom Russo | The Daily Reporter
GREENFIELD — The veteran Greenfield-Central girls basketball team came out in the season-opening game and played like you’d expect an experienced team to play.
In the second half, they played a little more like you’d expect any team to play in a season-opening game.
Though the second half wasn’t as crisp as the first 16 minutes, Greenfield-Central had already made its statement against Lapel — a Class 2A program that was state runner-up in 2023 and a semi-state qualifier last season — defeating the visiting Bulldogs 55-41 Tuesday.
“We hadn’t beaten them in my four years,” Greenfield-Central senior four-year starter Chaney Brown said. “The first half gave us a lot of confidence, we played really well. The second half we lost some momentum, but going forward I think we can build on what we did in the first half.”
It was the first time since a double-overtime victory in the 2020-21 season that Greenfield-Central had beaten Lapel. The Bulldogs had won the last three. All were close, with eight points being the largest margin during that stretch.
The Cougars jumped out to a 13-0 lead before the Bulldogs scored their first bucket, a Sophie Goodwin 3-pointer, with just 2:20 left in the opening quarter. After the first break, the Cougars led 21-5 and did not have a first-quarter turnover.
The G-C lead grew to 23 points in the second quarter and the hosts led 36-14 at the break.
Lapel 6-1 junior standout Laniah Wills, whose received offers from numerous Division I schools including in-state schools Evansville and Ball State, got her club some third-quarter momentum, cutting the Greenfield-Central lead to 15.
G-C helped out some too, committing 12 second-half turnovers, six in each quarter.
“[The great start] was huge,” Greenfield-Central coach Bradley Key said. “The third and fourth quarter, Wills made some plays that I don’t know if many teams are going to stop. Because we got that big lead it gave us a little bit of a cushion.
“The second half, we’ve got to learn how to handle success. I thought we ran our break really well to start the game and I thought our defensive intensity was outstanding, bu we’ve got to carry that for four quarters if we want to be the team we’ve talked about being.”
Wills had eight of her team’s 11 third-quarter points, but once the Bulldogs got within 15 points, 38-23 with 4:25 left in the third quarter, Brown, following a timeout, hit a 3-pointer to bump it back to 18. She got a steal and bucket later to get the lead to 20 again, 43-23 with 2:37 to go in third.
“That’s a senior leader,” Key said. “The play [on the 3-pointer] was to get it to her or [Madison Sonsini’s] hands. They were sagging off Chaney and she’s a great shooter. It’s awesome that we’ve had her for four years and it’s fun to watch her make those plays.”
“It was almost uncomfortable when the score got that close, kind of scary,” Brown said. “When I got the shot and the steal, it was like, ‘we’re okay.’ It was almost a relief. There was no need to rush anything, we just needed to take care of the basketball and play like we know how to play.”
Lapel was never able to get anywhere near striking distance again as the Cougars led by over 20 points late in the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs scored the game’s final eight points, all in the last 60 seconds, to get the game down to the final margin.
Brown led all scorers with 20 points. She was 6-for-12 from the field, 2-for-3 from 3-point range and 6-for-6 from the free-throw line.
She scored G-C’s first seven points, which included a 3-pointer and 4-for-4 at the charity stripe.
It wasn’t just Brown that got the Cougars going early.
Sonsini, a 6-foot senior forward/guard that has verbally committed to play at Spring Arbor University, teamed up with Brown to score 19 of the team’s 21 first-quarter points. Sonsini had 10, and like Brown, was perfect from the free-throw line, connecting on 6-of-6 in the first period.
She finished with 16 points — on 5-for-9 shooting from the field — and 13 rebounds. Sonsini had eight first-quarter boards and helped negate the productivity of Wills, who sat much of the first half with three fouls. Wills finished with 17 points, 15 came in the final two quarters.
“I told a lot people I thought we had a really good summer. That first half was a lot of what I was seeing during the summer,” Key said. “I thought Chaney Brown was outstanding, her effort, she did so many good things that aren’t in the stats, and her stats were awesome in the first half. Madi Sonsini, as well, the first half those two really got us going.”
The Cougars also got a big boost from their bench with 5-7 junior forward Juliann Jones, who missed much of the team’s summer preseason play due to recovering from an ACL injury suffered early last season.
She had four points and eight rebounds.
“She gave us a spark and it was fun to see,” Key said.
Lapel sophomore Jane Armington was the game’s only other double-figure scorer with 11 points.
Seven different Cougars scored, Izzy Silcox, Addi Herrin and Kynsey Hasty scored four points each. Ainsley Robinson scored three points.
“It’s a good ‘W’ against a team that has had a lot of success in the past,” Key added. “It’s a good start and great to learn from.”
Greenfield-Central (1-0) returns to action Thursday at Greenwood (0-0). Lapel (0-1) hosts Anderson (0-0) Saturday evening.
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Greenfield-Central 55, Lapel 41
Lapel;5;9;11;16; — ;41
Greenfield-Central;21;15;9;10; —;55
Lapel (0-1): Taylor Mroz 1 2-3 5, Laniah Wills 6 4-4 17, Brooklyn Boles 0 1-4 1, Jane Armington 4 0-0 11, Sophie Goodwin 2 0-0 6, Addie Bodenhorn 0 1-2 1, Layla Dawson 0 0-0 0. Totals: 13 8-13 41.
Greenfield-Central (1-0): Chaney Brown 6 6-6 20, Izzy Silcox 2 0-0 4, Madison Sonsini 5 6-6 16, Brooklyn McConnell 0 0-0 0, Addi Herrin 2 0-0 4, Ainsley Robinson 1 0-0 3, Kynsey Hasty 1 1-2 4, Juliann Jones 2 0-0 4, Paislee Brown 0 0-0 0, Addie Heacox 0 0-0 0. Totals: 19 13-14 55.
3-point goals: Lapel 7 (Armington 3, Goodwin 2, Mroz, Willis); Greenfield-Central 4 (C. Brown 2, Robinson, Hasty)
