Playing three games in four days plays havoc preparing for opponents. Greer girls coach Carlton Greene was faced with that task this week with the Lady Jackets playing at Byrnes on Tuesday, and home games with Travelers Rest Thursday and Riverside tonight.
The Lady Jackets’ 51-41 loss to Riverside (2-0) tonight didn’t cause Greene much concern. After all, Byrnes and Riverside are class 4A while Travelers Rest is in Greer’s 3A classification. “These games can’t do anything but help us when Region play begins,” Greene said.
“It’s hard to prepare for opponents on back-to-back dates like we had last night and tonight,” Greene said. “Sometimes you just don’t have time to practice for an opponent. I prepare for the team we play first. Some coaches will take a practice to prepare for both teams.”
Greene said he and the players met earlier in the day to discuss what to do offensively and defensively against Riverside.
Caroline Neely scored 15 points and Jessica Gay added 12 to lead the Lady Jackets. Both hit two three-point goals. Alexis Miller played well in the middle and scored six points.
“Jessica played a good floor game and made good passes. Caroline played a great game defensively. We had her post up on their big scorer,” Greene said.
Tonight’s loss was similar to others. The Lady Jackets matched up with Riverside for three quarters. A 17-point second quarter scoring blitz saw Riverside take the lead for good aided by Victoria LeRoy’s eight points (three 3’s), Morgan Quinley’s 4 points and a three-pointer by Rebekah Osborne.
The Lady Jackets managed to get within six points with halfway into the final period but couldn’t get enough firepower together to make up for the deficit after three quarters.
“When we get to the point where we eliminate the one big quarter we’ll be all right,” Greene said. “I’m seeing improvement in areas we need to improve. There are some areas we need to tweak. One of them is we’ve got to make less unforced errors.”
Greer hosts Byrnes Tuesday in a 6 p.m. game. The teams played last Tuesday with Byrnes winning 45-40.
RIVERSIDE 51 GREER 41
RIVERSIDE: McKenna Allen 0 0-0 0, Morgan Quinley 5 4-6 14, Baylor Johnson 1 0-2 2, Brooke Jordan-Brown 2 0-1 4, McKenzie Haley 0 0-0 0, Ashton Corn 1 2-4 4, Leroy Victoria Leroy 9 2-3 23, Rebekah Osborne 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 19 9-15 51.3-point goals (4): Leroy 3, Osborne 1.Fouls (16): Allen 1, Quinley 3, Johnson 2, Jordan-Brown 3, Haley 1, Corn 2, Leroy 2, Osborne 2.
GREER: Sarah Stevenson 1 0-0 3, Jessica Gay 2 6-7 12, Caroline Neely 6 1-2 15, Kayla Barbare 1 0-0 2, Shamyia Darby 0 1-2 1, Keyalla Barton 1 0-2 2, B.B. Lowery 0 0-0 0, Alexis Miller 3 0-1 3. TOTALS: 14 8-14 41.3-point goals (5): Stevenson 1, Gay 2, Neely 2.Fouls (16): Stevenson 3, Gay 2, Neely 1, Barbare 1, Darby 3, Barton 2, Lowery 1, Miller 3.
Riverside 10 17 13 11 – 51
Greer 9 9 14 9 – 41