For the Daily Journal
Greenwood’s girls’ basketball team hung with defending Mid-State Conference champion Plainfield for brief stretches Tuesday, but the visiting Quakers used their talent and experience to overwhelm the Woodmen for most of the contest.
Plainfield outscored host Greenwood 18-2 during a stretch that spanned from the second to fourth quarters en route to a 57-31 conference victory.
The Woodmen (3-5), with three sophomores in their starting lineup, occasionally gave the Quakers (6-1) fits with their 2-1-2 trapping defense, as Plainfield committed 19 turnovers. But the Quakers made up for that with more accurate field-goal shooting. They connected on 19 of 36 from the floor overall (52.8 percent) and 7 of 13 from 3-point range (53.8 percent).
Greenwood, meanwhile, labored through a 15-of-46 shooting night (32.6 percent) and missed all eight of its 3-point tries.
“We intercepted some passes and competed on every possession, but then we’d get tired and had to sub in more inexperienced players,” Greenwood coach Lee Taft said. “They’ve got two (NCAA) Division I players on that team and some good shooters.”
Riley Blackwell, a member of the Junior All-Stars’ core group of six players last summer, led Plainfield with 15 points, while Kayla Casteel, another Junior All-Star and a University of Evansville recruit, added 13.
The Woodmen stayed relatively close through much of the first half, trailing 23-16 with 3:38 to play. That’s when the Quakers began their dominant stretch. Other than Leah Moore’s putback basket one minute into the second half, Greenwood didn’t score again until Kristen Whobrey hit a short jumper with 6:27 to play. Plainfield led 41-20 by that point.
Plainfield’s trapping defense played a major role in its dominance during that stretch. Greenwood committed just seven first-half turnovers but lost the ball 11 times in the third quarter.
Moore led Greenwood with 10 points and added a game-high 10 rebounds. Alex Kincaid added six points and five rebounds for the Woodmen.
“We competed better,” Taft said. “We played half the game at the effort level we wanted. It’s not that the girls weren’t trying; it was fatigue.”
