Lady Waves put together 3 good quarters against Cosby but needed 4 complete quarters as they lost a hard fought battle, 45-52.
It looked bad earlier for the Lady Waves as Cosby jumped out to a 20-6 lead in the 1st quarter. Despite being undersized, the Lady Waves battled hard on the boards to keep the game close. The Lady Waves shot an impressive 13 of 15 from the charity stripe. It was one of the Lady Waves’ best performances of the year and they kept chipping away at the lead and found themselves down by only 5 points with 5 minutes left in the game (a big improvement over their first meeting when Cosby won by 20).
A few costly turnovers by the Lady Waves helped Cosby to withstand the surge and walk away with the win.
Kristen Gable, #10, led the Lady Waves with 16 points, followed by Hannah “Spell Checker” Childers and Ellison Beard, each with 7.
Boys Game
As commented in the article Midway vs Cosby 1987, the Greenwaves welcomed the #1 ranked Cosby Mountain Goats to SOR. In their earlier meeting in the year, Cosby blew out the Greenwaves by 36 points so one of the biggest factors for the Greenwaves to overcome was intimidation.
Despite snow in the forecast, the Midway faithful were out and anxiously awaiting a showdown with Cosby. But it didn’t take long to see that the Greenwaves were confident and knew that they didn’t play their best ball at Cosby back in January. The lead flip-flopped in the 1st quarter with Cosby taking a 12-10 lead at the end of one. Kent Settlemyer continued his offensive showcase as he again had the hot hand for the Greenwaves. Cosby would take a 6 point lead at the half, 27-21.
Things began to get heated in the 2nd half, more so off the court than on. Authoritative figures such as Marvelous Mike Hayes had to stop head-shaking, finger-snapping, “oh no you didn’t”, “yo momma”, trash talking between the Cosby cheerleaders and a portion of the Midway Jr High student section.
But it didn’t stop there. As the game went on, the adults (for lack of better wording) of Cosby began to resemble the Cosby fans from the 1987 game (see Midway vs Cosby 1987 article). Though the visitors section was nearly half empty, a couple of Cosby parents chose to sit right in the middle of the Midway bleachers and became louder as the game went on and it became clear that their intentions were to cause chaos. Vulgarities continued to be exchanged between these overzealous Mountain Goat fans and the surrounding Midway fans. The “Let’s take this outside” quote was heard numerous times. Midway’s Officer “Dumas” Walker had to step in. Officer Walker and one of the Cosby fans already have history together. A couple years ago when Midway hosted the tournaments, Cosby was playing Rockwood and this same gentleman became out of control and was introduced to Officer Walker as he was tossed to the ground, handcuffed, and taken to the Roane County Jail. Informed that he is an idiot for sitting in the heart of the Midway section to begin with, the fan elected not to test Officer Walker’s take-down maneuver again and remained somewhat peaceful.
Now back to the game……………..
Cosby added to their small lead in the 3rd quarter as they began to take control of the tempo and speed the game up. Coach Ruffner quickly took a time out as he saw his players try to run and gun with Cosby. The Greenwaves slowed the game back down with the spread offense however Cosby would take a 10 point lead going into the 4th and final stanza.
The 4th quarter belonged to the Mountain Goats. Cosby’s offense took over as they outscored Midway, 21-11, in the 4th and ran away with a 67-47 win.
The Greenwaves played a solid 3 quarters and gave the overrated, #1 ranked Cosby a scare.
Jeremy Woody led the Greenwaves with 17 points, followed by Josh Lloyd with 13, and Kent Settlemyer with 10.
The Greenwaves will play 3 games this week to close out the regular season. The Greenwaves will host a very good Wartburg team on Tuesday before playing on the road at Harriman on Thursday in what is sure to be an exciting game. The Greenwaves will end the regular season at home against Grace Christian on Friday. If the Greenwaves run the table, they can end the season with an impressive 19-9 record.