Rock Hill girls too quick for Greenwood
Rock Hill girls’ basketball confronted its greatest weakness Tuesday night in the first round of the 4A state playoffs. Greenwood was much taller than the Bearcats, but it didn’t matter in the second half as Rock Hill ran out 66-46 winners.
“That point total was kind of deceiving,” said Rock Hill coach Kenny Orr, whose team doesn’t have a player taller than 5-foot-10. “But to fight and show gritty effort was very meaningful to us. That’s one of our biggest weaknesses, height, and I wanted to make sure the girls competed. A lot of times they got lackadaisical and stood around and that’s what frustrated me.”
Rock Hill (24-2) started and finished the first half well, though there was plenty of struggle sandwiched in between.
The hosts roared out to an 11-2 lead. The Bearcats hit their first five 3-pointers of the night, triples from Brooklyn Bailey and RiKoya Anderson spurring the quick start.
But Greenwood (13-9) steadily hacked into the lead, most of its buckets coming from within a five-foot semicircle around the rim. At times it looked like the Eagles were playing volleyball on the backboards by themselves. Tembre Moats’ putback with 24 seconds left in the first quarter cut Rock Hill’s lead to four points, 14-10.
That cycle set the tone for the first half; Rock Hill outside shots, somewhat canceled out by Greenwood offensive rebounding and second chance points.
“We knew our posts were strong but we knew y’all’s guards were strong,” said Greenwood coach Sheila Rhodes. “It was gonna be interesting to see how this played out.”
Turning point
Greenwood cut the Rock Hill lead to 38-33 in the third quarter on an offensive rebound and stick-back by Moats. A Rock Hill timeout shortly thereafter fired up the Bearcats.
“We came down and gave up a 3 because we didn’t compete. We lose the ball out of bounds and I was like, ‘we’re not competing,’” said Orr.
From there, Rock Hill raced away, out-scoring the visitors 7-1 in the next few minutes, and 28-17 the rest of the way. A Jasona Ballard steal led to a Monique Stevenson layup, before Stevenson converted another steal into an easy two to stretch the Bearcats’ lead out to 10.
Used to their post players snagging rebounds, Rock Hill guards are programmed to leak out of the defensive end with the hope of getting an easy deuce. That finally began to happen Tuesday night midway through the third quarter, and all of the fourth when Greenwood unraveled.
Critical
Rock Hill’s fourth win in a row by 20 or more points came about because of perimeter defense. Understanding Greenwood’s advantage inside, the Bearcats stretched their defense and the turnovers rained down on the visitors from there, 28 Eagle giveaways leading to an avalanche of easy run-outs for Ballard, Stevenson and Madison Hendrix.
“That’s been our nemesis all year, is our turnovers,” said Rhodes. “We just turn the ball over way too much, and we turn it over in crucial times.”
Star contributors
Ballard led all scorers with 17 points and a team-high four steals, while showing a complete mastery of the head-fake. That move helped her on several occasions avoid Moats, who went flying by to leave Ballard with simple layups.
Hendrix had a big game all-around off the bench for Rock Hill, scoring 15 points, grabbing four rebounds, doling out four assists and making three steals, while Anderson pitched in a double-double of 11 points and 11 boards and Brooklyn Bailey added 11 as well. Moats led Greenwood with 13 points and nine rebounds.
On deck
Rock Hill advances to the second round to face Westwood, which won its first playoff game in the school’s young history Tuesday night. The RedHawks beat Wade Hampton on a bucket with five seconds left, but it’s uncertain when and where they’ll tangle with the Bearcats. Rock Hill High hosts the 4A Upper State wrestling championships Friday and Saturday complicating the planning of the second-round matchup.
Box score
Rock Hill 66, Greenwood 46
Greenwood | 10 | 16 | 11 | 9 | - | 46 |
Rock Hill | 14 | 20 | 15 | 17 | - | 66 |
Greenwood: Christina Moton 5, Tanayja Williams 8, Alancia Goode 5, Shyniece Sanders 10, Shermeria Quarles 6, Tembre Moates 13. Rock Hill: Brooklyn Bailey 11, Kendall Lahr 1, Monique Stevenson 8, Jasona Ballard 17, Madison Hendrix 15, RiKoya Anderson 11, Whitney Malone 1, Modesty Fobbs 2. Team fouls: Greenwood 16; Rock Hill 20 Foul-shooting: Greenwood 5-16; Rock Hill 9-13 3-pointers: Greenwood 2 (Sanders 2); Rock Hill 7 (Anderson 3, Hendrix 2, Bailey 2) Records: Greenwood 13-9; Rock Hill 24-2
This story was originally published February 16, 2016 at 9:19 PM with the headline "Rock Hill girls too quick for Greenwood."