Tipp pulls away from Greenville in second half

It was a very slow start for the Tippecanoe girls basketball team as they traveled to Greenville for their MVL matchup with the Green Wave. A big third quarter helped the Red Devils earn a solid 53-32 victory over Greenville on Saturday to give the Red Devils their first victory of the season.

“It is always good to win on the road in conference,” Tipp coach Julian Grasso said. “It is interesting to coach in MVL because I don't know the tendencies yet. New experiences with the culture of these teams. Props to Greenville, they run their man-to-man offense well, presenting problems with their tendencies. We switched to 1-3-1 and it was effective, it allowed us to build a comfortable lead.”

Scoring was at a premium in the opening period. Tipp was holding onto a 6-2 lead after four minutes of play behind a three each from Reece Hoover and Ella Combs. Both teams struggled to find the rim as neither team could score over the next three minutes before Greenville scored the final three points of the quarter. Tipp was holding onto a 6-5 lead after the opening period of play.

Hoover had the hot hand for Tipp in the first half, scoring nine points by the six minute mark of the second quarter. Abbi Mader then hit a pair of free throws to increase the Red Devils lead to 14-8.

The Red Devils continued to pressure Greenville and keeping them away from the rim. Macey Griffin scored five points in a span of a minute to increase their lead to 21-8 toward the end of the half. Greenville answered late, they trailed 23-11 heading into the half.

“We were getting great shots, just not finishing,” Grasso said. “They were throwing a lot of defensive looks at us and it took the girls time to get footing under them. We had to settle ourselves down and just needed to keep attacking the rim and sharing the ball. We were starting to knock down some shots in the second quarter.”

Tipp had a good third quarter, outscoring Greenville 19-8 over the eight minutes and putting the game out of reach.

“It has been a great experience so far, we are mostly a new team with younger players who haven’t played a lot of varsity,” Grasso said. “It has been problem solving and an approach to solve different defenses. We have to focus on things we can control. It will be a long season, and we will see a lot of different things to challenge us.”

“Macey picked us up in the second quarter, she is such a hard worker. Reece Hoover had a nice game today with Courtney Post having to sit out.”

Mader led Tipp with ten points, Ella Combs and Hoover each with nine, and Mady Turner scored eight.