The Greeneville girls got everyone back on the court on Monday night and got a career performance from Abby Adkins as they took down Science Hill 60-44.
“It was so fun have my whole team back out there playing,” Greeneville coach Annette Watts said. “Kyla Jobe has been out with the flu and Maria Lyde is still coming back from a concussion, but I thought that they both really played well. Then Abby Adkins came out and said, ‘you’re not going to beat us in our house’. I’m really happy for our team. I’m glad to get back on the floor and get our machine going.”
In the first half the Lady Devils used shut-down defense to build a lead and spread the ball around to five different scorers as the advantage reached 10-2. Maria Lyde got the day started with a block on the defensive end and then a jumper on the offensive end. Kyla Jobe and Adkins followed with points in the paint and Allison Hayes capped the run with a triple.
Science Hill scored four points over the final 52 seconds, but Greeneville took a 18-8 lead into the second quarter.
In the second Greeneville’s defense was truly overwhelming and only allowed five points, all coming from the free throw line.
“I loved our man-to-man defense, we did a really good job in the first half,” Watts said. “We had to play a little zone when (Jobe) picked up her third foul, but that was good for us because we need to learn how to play zone. We let them get downhill a few times for easy buckets. But we got some important blocks too. Maria got a few blocks, and Abby had a couple. That can get in the offensive player’s head, we don’t really practice that a lot, but I was glad to get them tonight.”
The Lady Devils offense slowed a bit in the second period, but Adkins and Jobe knocked down a pair of midrange jumpers to push the advantage to 22-9.
With 1:05 left Adkins walked her defender under the rim and then powered home a layup that she turned into three points for a 29-11 lead.
With less than one second left in the first half Science Hill’s Kaylee Oler was fouled and made both Charity tosses, but Greeneville still led 29-13.
Science Hill’s offense picked up in the second half, but so did Adkins as she kept Greeneville in front. Sharemma Mayo got out in transition for a layup through contact and made her free toss to cut the lead to 29-18.
Over the final 3:21 of the third quarter Adkins rolled in a pair of hook shots and took in a pass from Arieonna Barner for a layup as Greeneville pulled back out to a 41-26 lead.
Adkins finished the day with a career best 27 points to go with 13 rebounds.
“Abby didn’t even realize she scored that much, she thought she had only scored 10 points,” Watts said. “So that’s going to be our thing from now on, we’re going to let her think she only had 10 points. She was following her shot. She’d shoot, follow and lay it back in. I couldn’t be more proud of her.”
With 6:26 left to play Jobe dumped a pass to Adkins on the block for a lay in that pushed the lead to 46-28.
Science Hill responded with a 7-0 run and when Sophie Stevens launched a three-pointer from the corner Greeneville’s lead was cut to 46-35.
Adkins quickly scored in transition and then followed that up with four second-chance points. With 2:19 left the Lady Devils’ lead grew to 58-35 when Julia Woolsey grabbed an offensive rebound and got a runner to fall.
Over the final two minutes Science Hill knocked down three three-pointers to close the gap to 60-44.
Jobe finished Monday with 12 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Lyde had nine points and 10 rebounds for Greeneville.
Kaylee Oler led Science Hill with 13 points.
