The Herald, Sharon,
PA Published Saturday, Feb. 22, 1997

WINTER SPORTS Boys basketball

Greenville 60
Vision Quest 44

Trojans get win No. 20

By Ed Farrell
Herald Sports Writer

GROVE CITY _ Basketball seemingly always has been something of a weak sister to football and wrestling in the Greenville High School athletic program, but it's a new day.

action shot Via the Trojans' 60-44 triumph over Vision Quest Friday evening in the opening round of the District 10 Class AA playoffs, Greenville garnered its 20th victory of the season and its first berth in the state playoffs in more than a decade.

Greenville's Joe Korcinsky goes high in the air looking to pass over Vision Quest's Chris Wilson. (Gene Paulson/Herald)


For the first time this season, four District 10 Class AA teams will advance to interdistrict play.

``There haven't been many 20-win (seasons) in Greenville's history, so we're very, very satisfied with this,'' head coach Kelly Jones said outside the Grove City High School locker room. ``If we can get three more games, I think that was the big thing the kids were concerned about. In the back of their minds, they didn't want to end the season tonight, so now we're in the Final Four of the District 10 playoffs, and we have some things, obviously, we need to work on, but we're pretty well pleased with the kids' performance.''

The win was not an artistic success _ Vision Quest was guilty of 25 turnovers, Greenville 21, and neither team shot better than 40 percent from the floor _ but Jones was not complaining.

``We don't have much playoff experience to draw from, and I think part of that showed tonight,'' Jones acknowledged. ``We were a little nervous coming in, we hadn't played in a week, we were a little bit out of rhythm, but I thought, overall, when you get contributions from 10 kids, you have to be happy.''

The Trojans trailed only once _ 7-6 at the 2:40 mark of the first frame on a Van Ringgold bucket for Vision Quest _ but an 11-3 spree, highlighted by back-to-back treys by Jon Titzel and Ryan Oman and concluding with Adam Karson's traditional 3-point play with a scant second left _ enabled Greenville to assume a 17-9 margin.

Despite seven tunovers and eight Ringgold points, Greenville built a 31-22 halftime lead, keyed by a 6-2 run at the outset of the second stanza which was begun by a Jeff Lewis trey.

Six and five points, respectively, from John Isacco and Titzel offset eight points _ on 3-for-3 marksmanship _ by Vision Quest's Chris Wilson, and the Trojans expanded their advantage to 46-35 entering the fourth frame, and the Eagles drew no closer than a dozen points during the game's final eight minutes.

``We've had four seniors (Karson, Lewis, Isacco and Hoffman) who've put an awful lot of time in and I think the kudos goes to those people,'' Jones, said of the cage program's success this season. ``They've come from a traditionally strong class, with football and golf and some other successful sports, so that was one of the things that's really helped us, is that there was a core of athletes in each of the different sports, and some other fringe players who we were able to build some success on.

``I think the kids are beginning to realize that we've put in some extra time and we're now reaping some of the rewards from it,'' Jones concluded.
Notes: Greenville (20-5) connected on 23 of 57 (40.4 percent) floor shots and 11 of 29 (37.9) free throws, compared with respective totals of 19 of 52 (36.5) and 2 of 3 for Vision Quest (8-9). ... Led by Oman's 10 caroms, Greenville outrebounded Vision Quest, 46-36. Rob Green and Brandon Crawford each snared nine rebounds for the Eagles. ... Vision Quest, an independent, was making its third playoff appearance in the 6-year history since Roland ``Bay'' Lawrence started the program. ... Lawrence said his club was missing a pair of starters, Jerome Ruff and Alfie Fowler, due to disciplinary reasons. ... Greenville will meet undefeated French Creek Valley Conference champion Union City _ a 69-51 victor over Seneca Friday night.




Back to TOP // Herald Sports // Herald Home page

Internet service in Mercer County, only $20.95 a month!

Updated Feb. 22, 1997
Questions/comments: herald@pgh.net
For info about advertising on our site or Web-page creation: advertising@sharon-herald.com
Copyright ©1997 The Sharon Herald Co. All rights reserved.
Reproduction or retransmission in any form is prohibited without our permission.