By Grady Thompson

Sun Sports Contributor

GREENE - Tuesday night’s girls varsity basketball game at Greene Central High School showcased a lot of young talent between two disciplined teams: the Greene Trojans and the Bainbridge-Guilford Bobcats. Both teams certainly had their moments in the game, but it was the Trojans’ 20 point fourth quarter that would overcome a 12 point Bobcat lead to give Greene the win by a score of 45-43.

Entering halftime, the match was too close to call with Bainbridge-Guilford leading 22-21. The Bobcats were led by three first half three-pointers from Freshman Kori Thornton.

B-GA would come out firing in the third, scoring 16 points with all five of their second half starters scoring in the quarter. At the same time, the Bobcats also only allowed Greene to score 4 points to give themselves a lead of 37-25 going into the final quarter of the game.

“We were a little slow on defense in the third quarter. We didn’t get out to their shooters, and we left them some wide open jump shots that they were hitting,” said Greene Head Coach Scott Gorton. “But then in the fourth quarter, our pressure was outstanding. We started to hit some easy shots, and our confidence level started to go up again.”

The roles began to reverse after Greene Sophomore Alyssa Sands hit a big three-pointer to start the final quarter and move the deficit to single-digits. After that, Coach Gorton says, is when the Trojans started to redeem some of their offensive confidence that they had been lacking in the last couple of games.

“I thought that was a big shot, not just because of the score but because of what it did for our team. It was emotional, and it gave us confidence. We had lacked offensive confidence in the last 6-8 quarters or so we’ve played,” said Gorton.

Greene’s strong offensive performance, coupled with only allowing 3 points to B-GA in the first 7 minutes of the fourth, would eventually grant them a 43-40 lead with just :20 seconds left in the game. But the Bobcats’ Head Coach Bob Conway called timeout and drew up a play, and Kori Thornton came up big once more by drilling a game-tying three pointer with just :12.9 seconds remaining on the clock.

With the game on the line, Greene Senior Audrey Platta had the ball in her hands as she drove strongly to the basket and drew a shooting foul. Platta, who has been recovering from an injury this season, scored her only points of the game at a very opportune time for the Trojans, hitting both free-throws and giving her team the lead once more with :07.4 seconds left.

Gorton said, “[Audrey] was a great player for us last season. She’s been coming off an injury this year, and she’s back sooner than expected. She had been struggling shooting the ball since she’s been back but I knew that at the end of the game, she would make the right decision. And that’s why the ball was in her hands.”

The win breaks a tie between Greene and Bainbridge in the MAC conference, who both had only lost one conference game this season entering the game.