Hard to win if you can’t score — and on Tuesday evening, Greenwood Christian made sure that Tindley couldn’t.
GCA limited the Tigers to 11 second-half points, including just three in the fourth period, on the way to a 53-41 triumph in the opening round of the Class A Eminence Sectional.
The Cougars (5-18) will face Central Christian in a 7:30 p.m. semifinal on Friday.
“We turned it all up, and I think our offensive game went hand in hand with our defensive game,” GCA coach Tiffany Smith-Clements said. “We were pressing them, and a lot of those (points) in the third quarter were steals. We were stealing, and just turning and shooting and hitting. It was really beautiful, actually.”
Greenwood Christian trailed by three points after the opening quarter and 30-28 at halftime before turning up the defensive pressure. The Tigers scored just eight points in the third period; meanwhile, the Cougars’ Kiera Goins contributed nine of her 12 points in the quarter as Greenwood Christian built a 45-38 advantage.
Most of Goins’ damage was done at the head of the Cougars’ full-court press.
“She was just picking the ball out of the sky and putting it right in the hoop, and they couldn’t stop her,” Smith-Clements said.
The Cougars made that lead hold up over the final eight minutes by holding the Tigers to a single field goal. Tindley’s Taylor Cotham, who led all scorers with 19 points, didn’t score in the fourth.
Sydney Waldron scored 17 points for GCA and was joined in double figures by Goins, Addie Jolley (11 points) and Lauren Peterson (10).
Having watched her team earn one somewhat unexpected win, Smith-Clements is optimistic about the rest of the week.
“Here’s where I think our schedule helps us,” she said. “We played a very tough schedule for a small 1A school, and especially for a small 1A school that’s rebuilding. … I’m looking at Tindley’s schedule, and then I look at ours, and it just doesn’t compare. So I was confident going into tonight, and I think we had the girls confident that we could handle them.”
