Led by Ethan Greenberg, the Elks made eight 3-pointers to lead by as many as 14 points and held off Springboro in the second half for a 51-41 victory.
Greenberg scored a game-high 19 points and made four of his five 3-pointers in the first half. The Elks (6-4, 4-2 GWOC) came in averaging 7.3 3-pointers per game and finished with 10. Greenberg’s fifth 3-pointer snapped a 13-all tie early in the second quarter and began a 14-0 run for the Elks that led to a 27-15 halftime lead. His twin, Eli Greenberg, made three 3-pointers and scored 14 points.
“We were playing good team basketball together, moving the ball, getting in the spots that we needed to against their defense,” Greenberg said.
Springboro (7-4, 2-4) played 1-3-1 zone the majority of the game. The Elks expected it but haven’t found much time to work against it in practice, and at times it showed with turnovers or poor shot selection. Head coach Brook Cupps’ game plan against it was simple as he pushes his team toward more consistency.
“We weren’t real intentional with some of our movements, didn’t really understand where to move and where to space to, where to get the ball to, but we’ll get better at it,” he said. “Our thought was take care of the ball, don’t take a bad shot, we’ll eventually get something good.”
Springboro coach Brian Bales knew Centerville would take advantage if his team left them too open too often.
“They do a great job of knowing who to get the ball to,” he said. “And when those guys are open and they have opportunity to score, they score. They make plays when they need to.”
Centerville mixed in a little zone with its typical man-to-man in attempt to deal with the bigger Panthers and avoid unfavorable matchups. The Elks don’t have a traditional post player like they’ve had in recent seasons. None of the Elks are quite as tall as the Panthers’ 6-foot-6 trio of Carson Gutmann, Yuvi Bimwal and Matt Meek. Gutmann had the most scoring success with 17 points.
The second quarter put the Panthers in a big hole as the Elks continued to make 3-pointers and the Panthers kept bouncing shots off the rim. They recovered in the second half to cut the Elks’ lead to 35-29 with 2:15 left in the third and 35-31 to start the fourth on a basket by Gutmann. They had a couple chances to get closer, but shots near the basket didn’t fall much like happened in the second quarter.
“We go through spells where we just struggle to score it,” Bales said. “I actually thought we got good looks in the first half. We got to make shots when we’re open at the basket.”
When the score got tight, Ethan Greenberg scored on a difficult spin move to the basket, sophomore Trey Sam made two free throws and Eli Greenberg dunked off a turnover. The score was 41-31 and the Elks were back in control.
“We’re skilled, but we’re not big,” Cupps said. “What we try to do is space people out, let the ball move, let the ball create some action for us. Our guys have pretty good IQ, so we’re trying to read stuff and trying to put the defense in tough situations with some of our screening actions. We try to play in transition, but they did a good job of keeping us out of transition.”
The game played like two teams and coaches who know each other. That’s what the GWOC is all about this year. Miamisburg is in first place at 4-1 with a loss to Centerville. The Elks, Wayne and Fairmont have two losses. The Panthers, Springfield, Beavercreek and Northmont have three losses. Lots of games have been close and will continue to be close.
“This league this year, anybody can beat anybody,” Bales said. “Centerville and Wayne obviously are right there at the top, and then Miamisburg and Coach (Tim) Fries has done a heck of a job with this group. This league is so good and there’s so much parity that I It doesn’t surprise me any night when you look at a score and you think, ‘but wait a minute, these guys just beat these guys.’”
Cupps learned that in losses to Springfield and Wayne.
“I don’t think there’s any team in the league that has big room for error,” he said. “Don’t play well, you’re going to lose.”
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