At Saturday’s girls basketball 3A Sectional 29 semifinals in Greensburg, the host Lady Pirates continued their good late season play and Rushville rolled through another postseason opponent.
As heard on WRBI, Greensburg beat a good Lawrenceburg team 39-33. It was a very entertaining contest which saw nine lead changes and eight ties.
A 6-0 run by the host Pirates gave Greensburg a 15-11 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Tigers countered with a 6-0 burst of their own early in the second. A low scoring period for both clubs resulted in an 18-all tie at intermission.
Kirsten Cross had 14 of the LHS points and Leah West had 10 of the Bucs.
The third quarter saw the Tigers either up by a bucket or tied until the Pirates took a 25-24 lead at the stop on a three by Carlee Adams.
During the final eight minutes, Lawrenceburg’s last lead came at 28-27. The two clubs were tied at 30, then Greensburg outscored the Tigers 9-3 the rest of the way to win by six.
Two things which separated the squads were three point shooting and free throws. For the game, the Tigers failed to hit any of their 14 attempts from distance while the Pirates made five trifectas for 15 points. And during the second half, Lawrenceburg was just 1-of-5 from the line while Greensburg connected on 4-of-6.
West only scored two points in the second half but still led the Blue and White in scoring with 12. Mylie Wilkison followed with nine and Adams scored eight, all in the second half. Cross was held to three points in the second half but was also the Orange and Black points leader with 17. Both Lizzie Redar and Natalie Knigga added six. Cross and Redar combined for 16 rebounds.
Greensburg was 1-8 in November. Since January 1st, the Pirates have won six of their last eight.
In the first semifinal, Rushville defeated South Dearborn 67-34.
As lopsided as the score was, the Lady Knights did not play a bad game. SD just had a tough time putting away good looks at the basket and the Lions had a very good second half to pull away.
For the game, Rushville was 10-of-18 on three-point shots and hit 57 percent overall from the floor. The Knights converted just 28 percent of its total field goal attempts.
Annika Marlow of the Lions scored a game-high 18 points to go along with seven assists, five rebounds and four steals. Teammates Sophia Dora and Briley Munchel netted 12 and 11 points respectively. Munchel added five boards, four dishes and four swipes to her stat line.
For the Knights, it was Jillian Bond with a dozen points and Natalie Rupp with 11.
Rushville (16-9) will face Greensburg (10-14) in Tuesday’s 3A-29 championship at 7:30 pm. The winner will move on to Saturday’s Charlestown Regional and face either #12 Corydon Central (21-2) or #4 Silver Creek (22-2).
We thanks Greensburg AD Stacy Meyer and staff for the accommodations and hospitality along with coaches Jason Simpson of Lawrenceburg and Zane White of Lawrenceburg for their information.