The Greenville High School Honeybees never relinquished their lead in the second half in their season opening 42-40 victory over the Greenwood High School Lady Bulldogs Thursday night.
The Honeybees home crowd packed the gym and gave the team a boost of energy to hold onto the victory after Greenwood trimmed the lead down to two points and missed a layup that would’ve tied the game with five seconds remaining.
“We’re a young team and a lot of teaching still needs to take place,” said Honeybees head coach Dakedreon Lampkin. “They needed to realize at the end of the game that we were winning and we didn’t need to take the shots that we took.”
Sloppy play and timidity of the first half gave way to structure and offensive flow in the second half.
The Honeybees entered the third quarter trailing by three points, but scored eight unanswered points to start pulling away from the Lady Bulldogs. Greenville High took a 29-26 lead with 6:15 remaining in the third quarter. While A’Nyia Miller found her shooting stroke scoring eight points in the frame, sophomore forward Nevea Ervin crashed the offensive boards, getting to the free throw line and causing foul trouble for Greenwood interior players. Ti’Alone Banks wooed the crowd with a basket at the end of the third quarter by going around the back with the dribble, shaking a Lady Bulldogs defender and floating in a shot from the dotted line. The Honeybees led 39-34 going into the final quarter.
“When all of us are moving at the same time, we’re a good team,” Lampkin said. “But we’ve got to do it consistently.”
