GREENFIELD — The first comeback didn’t take so Greenfield-Central had to do it all over again.
Battling back from a pair of 10-point deficits, Greenfield-Central’s girls basketball team won for the fifth time in the last six games by defeating Bishop Chatard 54-51 at Dellen Automotive Gymnasium Tuesday.
Brooklyn McConnell hit a 3-pointer with 2:50 left in the game to give G-C a 52-51 lead. The teams traded missed buckets and turnovers until the Trojans had the ball with 30 seconds to go.
Chatard’s Betsy Tragesser rebounded teammate Anna Caskey’s miss, but the Cougars were able to get a steal and bucket from Madison Sonsini with three seconds to go to seal the win.
Sonsini led all scorers with 15 points. She had seven in the fourth quarter. G-C’s Chaney Brown added 14, 11 came in the second half. Cougar frosh Izzy Silcox scored 11, including three third-quarter 3-pointers.
Caskey led Bishop Chatard (2-3) with 14 points.
“The way we battled back, twice, I think our offense is capable of having explosive moments,” Greenfield-Central head coach Bradley Key said. “I told our girls that sometimes we have to get out of our own way. When we do that I think we can be a pretty good basketball team.”
Sonsini scored the game’s first two points just 20 seconds in, but Chatard followed with the next 12.
Down 10, the Cougars went on their own run. They finished the first quarter with seven of the final nine points and scored the first four points of the second.
McConnell hit a pair of free throws to cut it to 14-13.
Chatard got its lead back to six, 19-13, before G-C’s Addi Herrin answered with five straight points. She scored on a layup and a 3-pointer. The latter cut it to 19-18 with 48 seconds left until the break.
Caskey picked up a loose ball and scored right before the first-half buzzer to give the Trojans a 22-18 halftime lead.
Silcox hit the first of her three second-half treys to give Greenfield-Central a 25-23 lead with 6:23 left in the third quarter. It was Greenfield-Central’s first lead since Sonsini scored the opening bucket.
Chatard scored the next five points before Silcox’s second 3-pointer tied it 28-28. The Trojans scored the next 10 points to lead 38-28 with three minutes left in the third.
The Cougars finished the quarter strong. Brown scored twice, the latter cutting the margin to 38-32. A Sonsini drive to the bucket made it a five-point game, 39-34. Silcox drilled her third trey to cut it to two and Herrin, the Cougars only sub of the night, scored with 23 seconds left in the period to tie the game, 39-39.
The fourth quarter started tied and there were three more before McConnell’s 3-pointer gave G-C the lead for good.
“Brooke’s been with us for three years and she’s a big part of our program and someone we rely on and trust and want to take those big shots,” Key said. “I’m super proud of Brooke. We don’t have a lot of subs right now, so they are going to have to grind it out. Our kids were gassed, but good for us for battling out. If you are going to beat good teams you are going to have to play for 32 minutes.”
The Cougars hit seven 3-pointers on the night and were 6 of 10 from long range in the second half, and made the big defensive stop at crunch time.
“(Chatard’s) bigs (Caskey, a 6-footer, Alyx Kendall at 6-1 and Olivia Berzai at 5-11) are really good,” Key added. “Madi (a 6-footer) did a tremendous job on them all night, but she can’t do it all by herself.
“The guards needed to come down and dig … We were in tight the whole time, unless someone had the ball. Our off guard was coming down and we were really almost double-, triple-teaming to make sure they weren’t getting anything easy off (on that last possession). Good for our girls following the game plan and taking away Caskey, she’s a beast.”
Along with 14 points, Caskey had 11 rebounds. Sonsini had 10 boards for the Cougars.
“Our pregame talk, (I told the girls) we’re close to playing good basketball but I don’t think we’ve played our best yet,” Key said. “Moments tonight I thought we played really good basketball. We still have those moments where we’re making silly mistakes.”
Greenfield-Central (6-2) travels to Lapel Thursday. The Bulldogs were state runners-up in Class 2A last season.
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Greenfield-Central 54, Bishop Chatard 51
Bishop Chatard;14;8;17;12;—;51
Greenfield-Central;9;9;21;15;—;54
Bishop Chatard (2-3): Olivia Berzai 3 2-4 8, Alyx Kendall 2 1-2 6, Anna Caskey 6 2-6 14, Betsy Tragesser 2 0-0 4, Addison Duncan 3 0-0 9, Annie McAllister 1 0-0 2, Quinn Johnson 3 0-0 8, Mary Mason 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20 5-12 51.
Greenfield-Central (6-2): Chaney Brown 6 1-1 14, Jalyn Smith 0 0-0 0, Madison Sonsini 7 0-0 15, Brooklyn McConnell 2 2-4 7, Izzy Silcox 3 2-2 11, Addi Herrin 3 0-0 7. Totals: 21 5-7 54.
3-point goals: Bishop Chatard 6 (Duncan 3, Johnson 2, Kendall), Greenfield-Central 7 (Silcox 3, Brown, Sonsini, McConnell, Herrin)
