SHELBYVILLE
A historic four-year run came to a close for the Greenwood Christian girls basketball team Saturday with a 54-42 loss to Bethesda Christian in the semifinal round of the Class A Southwestern Regional.
At the heart of the defeat was Bethesda junior guard Kenzie Fulks, who led the Patriots with 25 points. GCA senior and 1,000-point scorer Ellie Bigelow finished her last high school game with a 20-point outing.
“Bethesda is a pretty good program. You know, Fulks is an All-Stater for a reason. She’s really difficult to deal with, and give Bethesda all the credit and they deserved it,” retiring GCA coach Alan Weems said.
After GCA (14-12) struck first with Dani Simon’s bucket inside, the two teams battled to an 8-8 stalemate until the final two minutes of the first quarter, when Bethesda (15-7) unleashed a 7-0 run starting with two points from Fulks followed by Paige Vawter’s off-the dribble 3 and capped off by a Fulks dagger from mid range to close the quarter with GCA in a 15-8 hole.
The Patriots were not prey to the Cougars in the second, either. Fulks scored five points quickly starting with a 3 and then stripping a Cougar for a steal and taking it to the hoop for a 20-11 lead with 6:47 left in the first half. GCA battled back and forth, gaining no significant ground before closing the first half behind 29-16.
“We just struggled all day. We just couldn’t buy a basket a lot of the day. The free throw line was really a problem in the first half,” Weems said.
With Bethesda ahead 33-20 with 5 minutes to go in the third, GCA needed to mount a significant comeback if it wanted to punch its ticket to the regional championship. Bigelow started that comeback bid with two free throws and a 3; however, Fulks responded tearing up the Cougars’ defense for two assists on Vawter buckets.
Despite a momentum-shifting 3 from GCA senior Chloe Grider to start the fourth, the Cougars were unable to achieve the stops necessary to complete the rally. The Patriots’ lead was whittled down to 44-38, but that was as close as it got before GCA was forced to start fouling.
Fulks hit six consecutive foul shots to put the game out of reach.
Although his final game didn’t turn out the way he would have liked, Weems was satisfied with the effort and longevity of the run.
“I told the seniors in there that they just went through an entire career without losing a sectional game, and that’s pretty darn good,” he said. “And that’s really something to say, and that they never had fewer than 14 wins in a season; that’s something to say as well. We all look forward to what the future holds, but the one thing I never want to do is forget about what these kids tried to maintain from the past. They just worked at it and they did the best they possibly could.”
Weems finishes his career with GCA at a 145-105 record, four sectional titles and two regional championships.
