Tipp pulls away in second half against Greenville

As the two teams headed into the locker room at halftime, the Tipp girls basketball team knew they had to be better in their battle against Greenville on Saturday. 

Point taken.

A 28-7 third quarter opened the game for the Red Devils, and Tipp went on to defeat the Green Wave 62-31 in a game that reached a running clock in the fourth quarter. 

Abby Mader led the Red Devils with 21 points while senior Morgan Sessions added 15 and Courtney Post scored 10. All of Sessions' points came on five three-point shots.

“I don’t know what it's about on Saturday morning, but we came out not as physical today,” said Tipp coach Brett Kopp. “The energy was not there, and we challenged them. Coming into today, we are giving up 19 points per game, and we gave up 16 in just the first half, which is not acceptable. They scored 15 in the second half, but they had to earn those.”

“We are at the point now where we can’t have off quarters, we have to have the focus of dominating from the (start).”

Tipp looked like it was going to be a long night for Greenville, jumping out to a 14-4 lead after the opening quarter as Mader scored seven in the opening period. But Greenville settled in and played them evenly in the second period. The Green Wave helped Tipp to only six points over the final 5:45 of the second period and outscored the Red Devils 9-6 to close their deficit to 27-16 at the half.

After a productive halftime talk, Tipp came out and made a statement in the third period.

Sessions knocked down a trio of three-point shots in the first five minutes of the period. A 22-4 start in the third period put the game away for Tipp, including six points from Mader. 

“We talked about it at halftime, and it was the first time we had faced adversity this year,” Kopp said. “I thought they played much better in the second half.”

“Morgan shot one in the second half, and before it even went in, I was calling our defense,” the Tipp coach said of the big day from Sessions. “If we can have someone who may not be a natural scorer all the time hit shots like this, it gives energy not only defensively but our offense too.”

Kopp wasn’t pleased with his early defense in the game, but they picked it up later in the game.

“First half not really at all, and we have an expectation and standard,” Kopp said. “We didn’t reach any of our defensive goals today.”