Greenwood's girls basketball team has gotten off to slow starts in losses against two of the league's top teams in Little Rock Christian and Vilonia.
Kinley Fisher made sure that didn't happen to the Lady Bulldogs on Tuesday against Siloam Springs.
Fisher hit four 3-pointers in the first quarter and Greenwood took a big lead early and rolled to a 66-38 win to hand the Lady Panthers their first 5A-West Conference loss inside Panther Activity Center.
"Last couple of games actually we've gotten off to really slow starts," said Greenwood interim coach Matt Bryant, who took on the role as interim coach with head coach Clay Reeves on medical leave. "And we still play hard and still do a lot of that stuff. What we try to do is not really panic about anything. I believe -- and the girls believe -- that we're doing the right things. We'll just hit a cold streak."
There weren't many cold streaks on Tuesday for the Lady Bulldogs, a state finalist a year ago.
Fisher hit a 3-pointer for Greenwood's first points of the game, and after Siloam Springs battled back to a 5-5 tie, Fisher hit the first of three straight triples to give the Lady Bulldogs a 14-5 lead.
"Fisher came out and hit some shots for us early," Bryant said. "It wasn't just about her hitting the shots. I think some girls made some great passes to her to get those shots. I think that's one thing we did really well against their zone was we moved the ball and made extra passes and got really good shots."
It was just the start that Siloam Springs hoped to avoid with the Lady Bulldogs.
"(Fisher) got off to a really good start for them and hit four threes right off the bat," said Siloam Springs coach Tim Rippy. "You know we were trying to prevent spot shots, what we call just a spot up three in the zone. To do that we've got to prevent vertical penetration to the basket. A lot of those shots came off dribble penetration, and so we've got to be disciplined on our closeouts of keeping the quicker kids in front of us so we don't have to help as much and can cover the 3-point shot. I thought Greenwood did a good job of attacking us and getting those shots."
Greenwood ended up taking a 20-6 lead after the first quarter and the Lady Bulldogs pulled ahead 35-19 at halftime.
By that point Greenwood was getting production from all over the court.
Jaelin Glass hit a 3-pointer and Kyiah Julian hit a pair of treys in the quarter.
The Lady Bulldogs maintained their lead in the third quarter, taking a 44-23 advantage into the fourth.
Siloam Springs had its best offensive quarter in the fourth, scoring 15 points, but it wasn't enough to keep pace with the Lady Bulldogs.
"We had a poor start offensively as far as our shooting," Rippy said. "We had a rough start as far as making shots. We've got to be able make shots and score quite a few points to be able to play with a team like that."
Fisher finished with 16 points to lead Greenwood while Maggie Rozell scored 10 of her 13 points in the fourth quarter. Shea Goodwin added 10 points for Greenwood.
Chloe Price led Siloam Springs with 16 points, while Jadyn Still had nine, Mia Hevener six, Jael Harried five and Sydney Moorman two.
Greenwood 66,
Siloam Springs 38
Greenwood 20 15 9 22 -- 66
Siloam Springs 6 13 4 15 -- 38
Greenwood (10-6, 2-2): Fisher 16, Rozell 13, Goodman 10, Julian 8, Stein 6, Glass 5, Sockey 4, Terry 2, Clements 2.
Siloam Springs (6-11, 3-1): Price 16, Still 9, Hevener 6, Harried 5, Moorman 2.
Up next
The Lady Panthers travel to Russellville for an important 5A-West game before hosting Vilonia on Friday.
Sports on 01/20/2019