Greenville thumps Demopolis in area contest

Greenville asserted itself physically early and often Thursday night on the way to a 57-38 win over Demopolis.

Greenville carried a 14-10 lead into the second quarter and held Demopolis to single digits in each of the next two eight-minute frames, holding a 46-28 lead after 24 minutes of play.

Greenville controlled the paint for most of the night, outpacing Demopolis 35-26 in the rebounding category and turning back six shots as a team.

“They’ve got three big bodies on the inside. They really beat us up on the glass bad and I think that was the difference in the ballgame. We’re going to keep battling, keep working and we’re going to keep our head up. That’s all we can do,” Demopolis coach Rodney Jackson said.

“They’re just so long. We drive and they get a deflection, get a hand on the ball. They’re quick off the ground. They’re able to stop our drive. It doesn’t help when you don’t make shots. We’ve just got to come out in more of an attack mode when we miss a few three-point shots.”

DaBryant Crenshaw led the charge for Greenville with 21 points, five assists, four steals and four rebounds. Zac Smith added 11 points and four steals in the effort.

Kiante Jeffries finished the night with 11 points to lead Demopolis while Roderick Davis added nine points and tied for the team lead with six rebounds.

The loss marks for the fourth straight for Demopolis (8-14, 0-4) and the ninth in the last 10 games for the Tigers.

Demopolis will look to change its fortunes Friday night when it hosts R.C. Hatch.

“One thing is not turning the ball over, just taking better shots in certain situations,” Jackson said of how his team needs to improve over its last five regular season games.

“When we’re not hot from the outside, we’ve got to really drive the ball. And, another thing is, when we drive the ball, we can’t stand and watch. We’ve got to get ourselves open and get ready for the next pass. This last week and a half of the season, hopefully we can get some momentum going into the area playoffs.”