There were moments when the Greenville High School boys basketball team made a play that brought the packed Hornet gymnasium on Halloween night to a frenzy in the Hornets’ 55-47 home loss to Greenwood.
Like when Greenville senior Morgan Green drove the length of the floor and somehow managed to slither his way through a much taller Greenwood player for a layup. Or when the 6-foot-5 Hornet newcomer Jaquann Robinson slammed a rebound back into the hoop with total authority. These exciting moments were real and worth the crowds’ eruption of applause. They showed that this season’s Hornet team has the potential to be quite something when the season comes down the home stretch.
However, these thrilling moments were offset, at least for one night, by other moments that showed the young team is still a work progress.
Greenville coach Delmar Sprouse said the biggest problem for his team Thursday was in shot selection. The Hornets took 18 three pointers against Greenwood but only managed to make just one.
“We settled too much from the perimeter,” Sprouse said. “We need to attack the basket, and down the stretch we did not execute.”
Greenwood junior guard Jaydon Nwachi led the Bulldogs with 25 points and seemed to come up big in all the key moments. Nwachi’s layup down the center of the lane in traffic put Greenwood up by six points with 44 seconds left and was the emphatic exclamation point to his fine night.
“He was like a one-man wrecking crew for their team,” Coach Sprouse said. “We tried every type of defense to stop him, but nothing seemed to work.”
Green led the Hornets with 18 points in the game and also registered four rebounds, two assists and two steals. Roberson finished with 10 points, five rebounds and two assists. Greenville junior Dekobe Lewis pulled down a team high 16 rebounds in the game, while junior Ced’Kevious Hobbs had four points and six rebounds.
The Hornets will seek their first win of the season when they host Coahoma Agriculture on Tuesday.
“I am a firm believer that it is not how you start but how you finish,” Coach Sprouse said.
