The Greene County girls’ basketball team opened the 2013 season on Tuesday of this week with a 49-44 victory over Heart of Iowa Activities Conference opponent Saydel (Des Moines) in Jefferson. Head coach Chad Morton saw his team trail 13-4 just minutes into the contest, but a strong second half propelled the Rams to the victory. The coach said changing defenses at the half was one of the keys to the win, along with the girls executing those changes. “I thought the girls did a good job with their experience coming out the second half and making those adjustments, and keeping a little bit more under control the second half. I thought we handled the time and situation of the game late well, and I was very proud of them.”

The Rams had 20 turnovers in the first half and 30 for the game. Greene County made 16 of 33 shots from the field and 15 of 21 from the free throw line. The coach commented about how his team shot the ball. “We should have good numbers as a junior-senior led team. We hope we have good numbers from our upper classmen, but apparently, we should have taken more shots.” The Rams did get more shots in the second half when they cut the number of turnovers in half from the first two quarters.

Next up is a 6 p.m. conference contest with Roland-Story (Story City) on Dec. 3 as the first half of a girl/boy doubleheader in the middle school gym in Jefferson. The Norsemen are also 1-0 on the season and in the Heart of Iowa after a 46-22 win at home on Nov. 26 vs. CMB (Baxter).