WADSWORTH: When coach Andrew Booth entered the Wadsworth girls basketball locker room at halftime Wednesday night, he was disappointed.
So were his players.
A scrappy Green team led by coach Tracy Miller played the role of aggressor in the first half and led by one point at Wadsworth.
“I didn’t raise my voice,” Booth said. “I think we were just disappointed in our performance and in our effort. Basically, it was: What is the sense in yelling and screaming? It is either we are going to start to play or we are going to take a loss. There is a time and place for that, and that was not the time and the place for that.”
The Grizzlies responded with a strong second half and earned a 56-41 Suburban League victory.
Senior Rachel Goddard led the Grizzlies (14-2, 9-0) with 22 points.
“We started to execute and get steals in the second half,” Goddard said. “For us, it always starts on the defensive end. When we get steals and rebounds, we get run outs. We are at our best in our transition game.”
Grizzlies junior Peyton Booth added 10 points, six steals, five rebounds, three assists and one block to help dispatch the Bulldogs (6-9, 4-5).
“In the first half, we didn’t play very good defense,” Peyton Booth said. “That is how our team always is, defense first. I wanted to really come out with some energy in the second half and that resulted in some steals, which led to some points.”
Goddard, Booth and senior McKenzie O’Brien each scored five points in the third quarter to give Wadsworth momentum. The Grizzlies held a 22-9 edge in the third quarter.
“We were all pretty disappointed in ourselves after the first and second quarter,” O’Brien said. “We were not prepared for the game and didn’t have our minds in it. We were just going through the motions. Coming into the third quarter, we knew if we wanted to win, we had to improve as a team and gradually get better and better.”
Sophomore Julia Guyton led Green to a 16-9 lead after one quarter and a 21-20 halftime advantage. She finished with 11 points, three rebounds and three assists.
“In the locker room, we realized that we had not played well,” Andrew Booth said. “A large part of that was due to the job that the Green girls did. I thought they were way more physical than us, they were more fundamentally sound and they came more ready to play than we did.
“Consciously or subconsciously, there wasn’t a lot of screaming going on in the locker room. We just needed to decide if we were going to play. I thought we came out with a lot more energy and I saw some glimpses of how good we can be, and how we should be in the second half. The bottom line is: When we are getting after it defensively, that really feeds our offense.”
Wadsworth forced Green into 22 turnovers. Grizzlies freshman Jodi Johnson had seven points and four steals. O’Brien and senior Taylore Robinson combined for 11 points and six steals.
Sophomore Tarah McCausland scored nine points for Green, and freshman Madison Jackson added eight points.
Michael Beaven can be reached at 330-996-3829 or mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the high school blog at http://www.ohio.com/preps. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MBeavenABJ and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.
