The Dadeville Lady Bearcats had a couple of strikes against them heading into their nonconference matchup with Greenfield on Tuesday. They had just suffered their first defeat of the year and had two key players victimized by the latest flu bug. But Dadeville (16-1) was able to overcome that adversity and beat the Wildcats 55-44 at the Bearcats’ Den.
Greenfield (6-11) was in command throughout the first-half, riding the 3-point shooting of senior Taylor Shepard to a 20-18 lead.
“She’s been shooting it really well since Christmas,” said Wildcat coach Derek Binford. “She’s made at least 3 threes in every game except for once since Christmas, so she’s shooting extremely well.”
Dadeville started the turnaround on the last play of the second quarter, as all-state senior guard Mary Bergmann drilled one from about 38 feet.
“That’s actually one shot I practice a lot,” Bergmann admitted. “I was pretty determined to get it off before the buzzer went off. But yeah, I was kind of hoping it would go in and it did. Pretty cool.”
“The second-half was better for us, shooting-wise,” said Dadeville coach James Cowan. “First-half, (we were) 3-for-18 I think from the 3-point line. We didn’t play our best game defensively, but we got key stops down the stretch that we needed."
A change in defense also played a significant factor.
“We pulled our press off,” said Cowan. “Usually that’s what gets us going. It wasn’t really working for us. We were either getting a turnover or they were hitting threes at the other end. So we pulled that off and played solid half-court defense in the second-half. This was the third time we’ve played Greenfield this season, so they knew what to expect from us. We know what to expect from them. They just executed better in the first half than we did."
Dadeville took its first lead with 3:46 to play in the third quarter on a baseline drive by Bergmann, who ended up with 27 points.
“I hate being behind in games,” said Bergmann. “That’s one of my favorite drives to do. I knew I could take it and I just wanted to get up because that would boost my team. I knew I had to do something, and I saw my opportunity and I went for it.”
Bergmann was aided by the 14 points of fellow senior Amy Brown and the 13 of her twin Melody Bergmann. Shepard was tops for Greenfield with 18.
“I think we had a few lapses of focus on defense where we let them get a few buckets in the paint," said Binford. "That was kind of our focus tonight, to make them shoot contested 3-pointers. And we kind of fell asleep a few times and let them get easy buckets in the paint."
Greenfield 9 11 16 8—44
Dadeville 6 12 19 18—55
Greenfield: Taylor Shepard 18, Ali Walters 9, Katie Marshall 7, Paige Hargis 4, Kaylee Daniel 4, Karsen Sims 2
Dadeville: Mary Bergmann 21, Amy Brown 14, Melody Bergmann 13, Taylor Grisham 5, Megan Obert 2
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