GREENFIELD — The Cougars know who their leader is.
Beyond that, there are questions.
Hannah Farrell has had a huge start to the season, coming into Friday night’s conference opener against Pendleton Heights averaging 19.8 points and 9.0 rebounds per game.
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She added 22 points and nine more rebounds, to go with four steals and three assists, in a losing effort against the Arabians. Greenfield-Central’s girls basketball team fell at home, 61-48, dropping to 3-2 on the season and an 0-1 start in the Hoosier Heritage Conference.
With Farrell shining, now it’s about finding the pieces around her.
“We’ve gotta find five or six players that are willing to give everything they’ve got for 32 minutes,” Greenfield-Central coach Bradley Key said. “Until we find that, we’re not going to beat good teams. Hannah’s our best player, hands down. Everyone we play knows that. Her effort is tremendous. Her effort tonight was tremendous. We’ve gotta find players that come along — and I don’t know if they’re in that locker room or not — but we’ve gotta find players that are willing to give similar effort.”
The Cougars kept things close through three quarters, being outscored by a single point in each to enter the fourth down 41-38.
As she had all night, Pendleton Heights junior Aubree Dwiggins dominated the final quarter, quickly putting the game out of reach.
Dwiggins finished with 30 points and 14 rebounds, 10 of those coming on the offensive end. That’s where the 5-foot-11 forward controlled the game, out-muscling, out-positioning and out-hustling the Cougars all game long.
“She had 30 points off of getting put-backs. It’s not like she was stepping back, hitting shots,” Key said. “Noblesville beat us the other night, they had a girl hit six threes. OK, that’s something we’ve got to cover up. This had nothing to do with skill. Kudos to her, what a great game. But a lot of it was her just beating us to the spot, and her gritting her teeth and putting it back in. We don’t have that right now.”
The Cougars were outrebounded 31 to 19. The Arabians almost matched Greenfield-Central’s total on the offensive glass alone, finishing with 18 offensive rebounds.
“I could sit here and talk about blocking out, but a lot of that’s just effort,” Key said. “A lot of that is you just having what it takes to win games, and right now we don’t. We’ve seen flashes of that against other teams. It just didn’t hurt us as bad.”
Following Harrell on the scoreboard for the hosts was Crystal Peterson, who scored 12 points and had four rebounds and two steals. Lydia McIntire scored 10 points but was held to just a single rebound. Samantha Kihega added four points and a rebound.
No other Cougars scored.
It was a much different game from last year, when the Cougars bested the Arabians 57-50 in the regular season. The two teams shared the HHC title last season, each finishing 6-1 in the conference.
The Arabians looked every bit the part of a good, conference-contending team on Friday night.
Greenfield-Central’s first-year coach knows his team has work to do to get back to that level.
“It’s defense that is eating me right now,” Key said. “The lack of communication, the lack of movement, the lack of rotating. Some of that’s going to take time. I’m as frustrated as I can remember, just because I know there’s more in the tank, and we’ve gotta figure out a way to get it out of some players. Until we do, we’re not going to beat good teams.”
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Pendleton Heights 61, Greenfield-Central 48
Pendleton Heights;16;12;13;20;—;61
Greenfield-Central;15;11;12;10;—;48
Pendleton Heights (4-1, 3-0): Kailyn Graham 4 1-2 11, Megan Mills 1 1-2 4, Aubree Dwiggins 13 4-4 30, Kylie Davis 5 0-1 11, Niyah Loomis 2 0-1 2, Leonie Wilson 1 0-0 2. Totals: 26 6-10 61.
Greenfield-Central (3-2, 0-1): Hannah Farrell 6 8-11 22, Addie Hill 0 0-0 0, Lydia McIntire 5 0-0 10, Crystal Peterson 4 3-5 12, Keryna Barrett 0 0-0 0, Caroline Gibson 0 0-0 0, Samantha Kihega 1 2-4 4. Totals: 16 13-20 48.
3-point goals: Greenfield-Central 3 (Farrel 2, Peterson), Pendleton Heights 4 (Graham 2, Davis, Mills).
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Mt. Vernon 66, Rushvile 51
Sydnee Perry led the way with 17 points, and Lexi Shelton and Shay Shipley added 15 each in a Marauders win.
Eastern Hancock 51, Cowan 43
The Royals moved to 3-1 on the year with a home win against Cowan.
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