Preview: Mooresville Pioneers vs. Greenfield-Central Cougars
The Mooresville Pioneers will wrap up 2023 with a road trip to face off against the Greenfield-Central Cougars at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Mooresville comes in on eight and Greenfield-Central on four.
Last Friday, the stars were shining brightly for Mooresville in a 63-45 victory over Decatur Central. Given Mooresville's advantage in MaxPreps' Indiana basketball rankings (they are ranked 31st, while Decatur Central is ranked 140th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Mooresville can attribute much of their success to Kalyn Bunch, who scored 15 points along with nine rebounds, and Rachel Harshman, who dropped a double-double on 24 points and 14 rebounds. The matchup was Harshman's third in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Randee Garringer, who scored six points.
Meanwhile, winning is just a little bit easier when your three-point shooting is a whole 25% better than the opposition, a fact Greenfield-Central proved on Tuesday. They strolled past Connersville with points to spare, taking the game 57-38.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Greenfield-Central to victory, but perhaps none more so than Chaney Brown, who dropped a double-double on 13 points and 16 rebounds. Those 16 rebounds set a new season-high mark for her. The team also got some help courtesy of Madison Sonsini, who scored 16 points along with eight rebounds.
Mooresville pushed their record up to 12-2 with that victory, which was their sixth straight at home. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 56.3 points per game. As for Greenfield-Central, they are on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last eight contests, which provided a nice bump to their 11-3 record this season.
Wednesday's contest is shaping up to be a masterclass in shooting: Mooresville have been dynamite from deep this season, having made 41.5% of their threes per game. However, it's not like Greenfield-Central struggles in that department as they've nailed 41.4% of their threes per game this season. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Everything went Mooresville's way against Greenfield-Central in their previous meeting back in January of 2020 as Mooresville made off with a 46-22 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for Mooresville since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
