Greenwood girls basketball tops Whiteland in county opener

Greenwood’s girls basketball team has made a point of emphasizing defense this season, and despite coming into Tuesday night with a three-game losing streak, the Woodmen have been putting in the work at that end of the floor.

The results finally matched the effort. Greenwood smothered visiting Whiteland early and forced 26 turnovers in all on the way toa 45-28 victory in the opening round of the Johnson County tournament.

The Woodmen (2-3) will face tourney host Center Grove in a 6 p.m. semifinal game on Thursday.

“We’ve really harped on playing really well in the halfcourt defensively,” Greenwood coach Justin Bennett said. “I thought our energy on defense to start the game was what got us the lead that we needed to get. The girls were really active with hands, they were talking and communicating and switching, and I thought that that propelled us to the way we started.”

Greenwood refused to give Whiteland’s offense any room to breathe at the outset, forcing turnovers on eight of the Warriors’ first nine possessions. After a Braylyn Clendenen 3-pointer gave the visitors a brief 3-2 lead, the Woodmen turned up the defensive heat and used those takeaways to get their offense going.

A deep ball from Brooklyn Bell started what turned into a 14-0 Greenwood run that ended with a Josie Ochsner 3 to start the second quarter. Whiteland ended its seven-minute, 35-second dry spell with an Emma Piercy free throw, but five straight points from Quinn Kelly keyed another 8-0 burst by the Woodmen that made it 24-4 with 2:31 remaining in the half.

“The past few games have been off, and we just needed that energy,” Greenwood junior forward Ella Stivers said. “As soon as we start that energy from the beginning, we’re all good.”

Late in the second quarter, Whiteland showed some signs of life offensively, finally ending its field-goal drought with a Piercy jumper at the 1:55 mark and ending the half with a 9-2 spurt to get back to within 26-13.

That momentum carried over into the third period. The Warriors held Greenwood scoreless for the first 6:46 of the quarter and cut the deficit to single digits at 26-17 on a pair of free throws by Emily Reed. But Bell hit a runner with 1:14 on the clock and then beat the horn with a 3-pointer from the wing to stretch the Woodmen lead back to 14 heading into the fourth, all but dousing any hopes of the Warriors completing their comeback.

“We’ve really struggled scoring buckets in the halfcourt,” Whiteland coach Kellie Kirkhoff said, “so we emphasize boxing out, rebounding, outletting it and running in transition to score easy buckets. We did not do that tonight, and the score … shows that we struggled to score it in the halfcourt.”

Bell finished with a game-high 12 points for Greenwood. Kelly totaled 11 points and nine rebounds, while Ella Stivers and Josie Ochsner scored eight points apiece. Clendenen and Kylee Marlin each had eight points for the Warriors.

Having gotten themselves back on track, the Woodmen turn their attention to the Trojans, who have won the last eight head-to-head meetings dating back to January of 2015.

“Center Grove is always a good team,” Bennett said, “but we’ve had some good games in the past with us playing defensively against them, and I think offensively we’re a little bit better this year, so we’re looking forward to it. I know Center Grove’s a little bit different this year, just like we’re a little bit different this year, but they’re still going to be really tough.”