PINEVILLE — While everything hasn’t gone the way he had hoped to this point of the season, defense isn’t at the top of concerns for Pineville coach Elglie Green.
The Lady Lions dominated on the defensive end Friday in a 50-27 win over visiting Harlan County on the second night of play at the Chain Rock Classic. A young HCHS lineup struggled against the pressure and length of Pineville, shooting only 22 percent (nine of 41) from the field while being held to single digits scoring in each of the first three quarters.
“Defensively, we’re not a bad team. It’s offense where we’ve been struggling,” Green said. “I thought we played well tonight. We did a few things not in the game plan, but overall our defense played really well.”
Harlan County coach Gary Greer knew there would be plenty of growing pains for the Lady Bears with a roster featuring no seniors and two juniors, but he was unhappy with his team’s lack of intensity in falling to 3-8 on the season.
“We’re just not doing things we work on in practice. We’ve worked so hard the last few days on our halfcourt offense, but we’re not even lining up in the right spots, and our spacing is awful,” he said. “If the shots aren’t falling, you have to be able to do something else to help win a game — rebounding or guarding or making a play for someone else. We didn’t do any of that. I was very disappointed in our effort. I haven’t questioned that before, but today I question whether we played hard.”
Senior wing Ava Arnett carried the Pineville offense as she scored 29 points with the Lady Bears focused on containing junior center Rachel Howard, who finished with nine points and 14 rebounds.
“Ava moved well. They were double and triple teaming Rachel, and she showed some patience tonight,” Green said. “If you take her out of the offense it sometimes detracts from the rest of her game, but she didn’t allow that to happen tonight. Ava was real aggressive without the ball, and that’s what we need her to do every night.”
The tournament concludes Saturday with Harlan County playing Letcher Central at 1 and Pineville taking on Cumberland Gap, Tenn., at 5.