Tuesday night’s victory against Greens Farms Academy was something the Greenwich Academy basketball team desperately needed.
Playing in its final Fairchester Athletic Association regular season conference game of the season and coming off a rough week last week, the Gators used some hot shooting and stellar defense to upend the Dragons 70-55.
“This was a big one for us,” Greenwich Academy head coach Wes Matthews said. “They did this without a practice because of the snow day, but this was a very important game for us. It’s our last FAA game and I emphasized that all week. This game either would give us home court in the first round or we are going on the road.”
For the Gators, no one was better than Kaitlin Davis, who finished with a game-high 32 points, 18 of which came in the second half.
“This feels great,” Davis said. “Our defense and being persistent on the defensive end was key. We didn’t want (Lexi Kimball) to get the ball too much. We were very cohesive as a team and knew which space to fill in when another player leaves. This was big for us because we came off a two-loss streak, so this was good to get the team’s pride up.”
Not to be outdone was teammate Brooke Powers, who helped Greenwich Academy dig itself out a deficit early in the first half and finished with 19 points. Of those 19 points, 17 came in the first half and all but two buckets were from three-point land.
“This was great because we played really well and I am proud of us,” Powers said. “We went through a rough streak last week and we got our groove back tonight. It’s really nice and the effort was definitely there. With playoffs coming up, we just want to start with a positive note and this gave it to us.”
Olivia Davis also had a stellar outing for GA, grabbing 10 points. Pheobe Morris only finished with 15 points, but it was her presence on defense that forced Greens Farms Academy’s best deep threat, Lexi Kimball, with nine first half points.
“I am super proud of my girls and they gave me everything that I needed today,” Matthews said. “They paid attention to detail. We had a full team effort. We talked about not letting this one get away because we are looking for a magical season. So far we are having a pretty good season and it’s very important to get a home game in the FAA.”
With the victory, Greenwich Academy moved to 9-7 overall this season and took away some of the bad taste left from last week. Back on Feb. 2, GA fell to Rye Country Day School 64-45. Although they upended Masters School in a non-league match-up 55-45, they returned to FAA play on Feb. 6 and fell to Hopkins School at home 42-34.
“All they need to do is believe in themselves,” Matthews said. “Today was a character builder and at the same time it was a confidence builder. We were getting a little down on ourselves because we lost to Hopkins and Rye and our confidence was dropping. To see them come back and find the basket today was a serious eye-opener because now they can see that their hard work could give them 70 points in a game.”
While Greenwich Academy picked up the much needed victory, it appeared that Greens Farms could blow the game open early. Before the Gators could take a breath, Kimball was on fire, hitting GFA’s first three shots, all from behind the three-point line.
With Ashley Humphrey joining in on the three-point party, the Dragons built a 12-7 lead with less than 12 minutes to play in the first half.
“What we did was put a box and one on them,” Matthews said. “We our best defender in Phoebe Morris on Lexi and that made it tough for her. We boxed the rest the rest of them out and we figured that once we got it out of her hands, we won’t let her get it back unless someone else beats us. She’s a very good basketball player that has been lighting up the FAA. She came out and hit her first three three-pointers and I told the girls not to get rattled and it’s a long game.”
Despite being down early, the Gators came storming back. Back-to-back layups, as well as a foul shot by Davis, helped trim the deficit to 14-12 with 9:32 to play in the half. After the Dragons went up 15-13, Powers electrified the building with a deep baseline three-pointer to give Greenwich Academy its first lead of the game at 16-15 with 8:30 left.
“We came out with a really positive attitude and we all worked really well together,” Powers said. “We did our roles on the court and concentrated on the little things. We boxed out, rebounded and were very aggressive. It showed on the court today.”
Although Kelly VanHasen stopped the bleeding with a layup to give GFA the lead once again, Greenwich came right back. Davis drove the lane, hit her shot and was fouled going up. She converted the old school three-point play and GA had the lead.
It got extended a little over a minute later when Powers hit another baseline three-pointer. Once again VanHasen stopped a possible GA run with a bucket in the paint, but once again a baseline three-pointer by Powers with 3:51 to play gave the Gators a 27-19 advantage.
From there, Greenwich Academy cruised, ending the half on a 10-0 run. Powers started the surge with a baseline three-pointer and Davis hit the turnaround jumper. Just like she was doing the entire first half, Powers drained the three-pointer and Morris followed it up with a layup in the paint off a nice pass as time expired to make the score 37-24.
“Until our offense gets going, we need to make our defense our offense,” Matthews said. “We did that today. I have been preaching all year to let our defense be our offense.”
In the second half, Greens Farms Academy cut the lead to 10 or less a few times early, but Greenwich Academy blew the game open in the final 10 minutes. With 10:13 to play, Davis hit the turnaround jumper and followed that up with an easy layup to make the score 47-35.
Casey Gottlieb went 1-for-2 from the line and Olivia Davis was fouled and missed her 1-and-1, however Kaitlyn Davis was there for the offensive rebound and putback to make the score 50-35.
Power changed up her outside game and connected on the layup with 7:50 to play. Another GA layup with just over seven minutes to play ballooned the lead to 54-35.
“Tonight’s win was a thing of beauty for us,” Matthews said. “We scored 70 points tonight and we haven’t done that in two years. That’s a credit to their hard work and being hungry. I tell them to be hungry and gritty all year because we went from a 1-16 team two years ago to 11-11 last year and now we are 9-7. We are getting better every year and we worked hard.”
Now it’s a few more games until Greenwich Academy makes its return to the postseason for the first time in several seasons.
“This is the best part of the year,” Matthews said. “We worked our butt’s off since November and now we get rewarded and see where we stand. This is new for us. We haven’t been to the playoffs in seven or eight years, so we are going to try and make this a habit now. It’s still new for us and the girls are thrilled to see that all the hard work is paying off.”
