Greenfield-Central’s Aryana Hibbard has the ball batted away during their game against Tri Thursday.
Tom Russo | The Daily Reporter
GREENFIELD — Head coach Bradley Key summed it up quickly after his sophomore-heavy roster lost to an experienced state-ranked team Thursday.
Winning’s tough,” Key said after his Greenfield-Central girls basketball team lost 53-39 to Class 1A No. 7 Tri at Greenfield-Central High School.
The small-school Titans made up for size of enrollment with size on the floor, led by a pair of 6-foot starters on a team that graduated just one player from an 18-6 club.
Greenfield-Central started three sophomores with another first off the bench.
“We’ve got great kids,” Key continued. “We’ve got to figure out how to do the little things to get over the hump. We’re still going to take some bruises along the way. It won’t be the first or last time we struggle. Hopefully by the end of the year we get it figured out.”
Among the Cougars struggles Thursday was getting the ball inside to top player Chaney Brown. Often they relied on taking three-point shots. Greenfield-Central made seven from beyond the arc, but, unofficially, had 37 attempts.
“We don’t have the confidence to dribble in and make a play,” Key added. “Until we get that we’re going to struggle against a team like that that has a big (6-1 senior Bailey Parham). She’s really good. She caused a lot of problems for us.
“We did battle back at one point in time. At the end of the game we have to keep it together and we didn’t.”
Tri led by 10 late in the first quarter, 16-6. The Cougars kept clawing back, getting the margin down to four in the second quarter and to three in both the third and fourth quarters.
Brown scored on an in-bounds play with 3:40 remaining to cut Tri’s lead to 42-39, but it would be the Cougars last points. The Titans scored the last 11, including 5 of 7 at the free-throw line and a pair of buckets off steals by game-leading scorer Kenley Cornelius, who finished with 24.
“They’re good. They are No. 7 in 1A for a reason,” Key said. “A big thing, they were 18-6 last year and only lost one player. That’s a team that knows how to win. We’re trying to get things turned around here where we step on the floor and we do what winners do. They did a great job of maintaining the lead with their best player (Parham) out with foul trouble. They have a group of kids used to winning and they know what it takes. We still haven’t got there yet.”
Senior Aryana Hibbard led G-C scorers with 14 points, including four 3s. Brown added 11 and sophomore Brooklyn McConnell hit a pair of treys for six.
Brown grabbed 11 rebounds. Off the bench, junior Katie Holmes had eight rebounds.
Parham followed Cornelius with 18 points. Parham and Cornelius combined for 20 of the Titans 22 first-half points.
Prior to Thursday, only four Cougars had scored in their first two games. Six found the scoring column against Tri.
“Emma Nelson (two points) and Holmes (two points) have a little bit of length for us,” Key said. “This is their first real varsity time and Jalyn Smith, who had four (points). Those are three kids that are getting a lot more minutes than what they had last year. As time goes on they’re going to improve. That’s part of the growing pains.”
Greenfield-Central (1-2) is back in action today with a game at Guerin Catholic at 12:30 p.m.
