XENIA — Listed at 5-feet tall, Morgan Gilbert was the smallest player on the court, but that didn’t stop the Greenville senior from banking a 3-point shot off the glass for the buzzer beating game winner, Jan. 29 in a dramatic 42-39 win over host Xenia.
Greenville’s Nyesha Wright inbounded the ball from just across the midcourt line with 14.3 seconds to go, and the ball got to Gilbert who found herself just to the right of the top of the arc for the shot.
With Xenia players staring on in disbelief, Gilbert’s Green Wave teammates mobbed her at midcourt in celebration.
The host Buccaneers trailed 28-21 at the half, but outscored Greenville 13-4 in the third quarter to take a 34-32 lead into the fourth quarter. Xenia sophomore guard Brynna Mardis canned a three-point shot from the left wing with 1.6 seconds remaining in the quarter to give the Bucs their first lead of the game.
Greenville outscored Xenia by a 10-5 margin in the final quarter for the win.
Bucs coach Jessica Threats and Green Wave coach Rachel Kerns were both still in the locker rooms speaking with their teams, just prior to presstime.
Greenville’s Gilbert had frustrated Xenia early on by drawing at least three charging calls against Bucs players who were driving inside in hopes of scoring an easy layup. The Green Wave senior scored six points on a pair of 3-pointers, but the game winner was the one that hurt Xenia the most.
Green Wave senior guard Haleigh Behnken entered Wednesday night’s contest as the second leading scorer in the Miami Valley League with an 18.4 points-per-game average. Behnken led all scorers with 18. Greenville is now 9-9 overall, and 8-7 in the Miami Valley League’s Miami division.
Junior guard Kamea Baker scored 11 points to lead Xenia, with Kendall Sherman adding nine, Reaghan Wakefield scoring seven and Mardis scoring six.
Xenia (4-15, 2-13 MVL Miami) plays at Riverside Stebbins at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 1, while the Green Wave will host Piqua for a noon contest that same day.
