The West Greene boys basketball team picked up a 55-36 win on Tuesday night and snapped a 23-game losing streak to North Greene.
The last time the Buffaloes beat North Greene was December 4, 2010, when West Greene coach Allen Tolliver was in the sixth grade.
“I’m ecstatic with effort,” West Greene coach Allen Tolliver said. “It feels great to end that streak. I don’t have to see it on Twitter or in those articles anymore. Now we’re on a little streak of our own with six wins in row. That’s progress, and a step in the right direction. Hopefully we can keep this going.”
Tuesday’s action started back and forth, but when Braden McCamey beat the buzzer with a triple from the left wing the Buffaloes found some breathing room at 15-10.
In the second quarter both defenses were in control early and it took until the 4:20 mark before a shot fell through the rim. McCamey got a jumper to drop from the short corner to break the ice. McCamey followed with a triple before Tytus Shelton backed down his defender and tapped one off the glass for a 22-10 lead.
“We have been stressing communication on defense because North Greene likes to set a lot of tricky screens,” Tolliver said. “But I felt like our guys knew their tendencies, and I felt like they did a really good job of picking those up, which was key for us on the defensive end.”
Jaiden Bailey finally got a shot to fall for the Huskies with 2:53 left in the first half and after Lance Carrico put in five points North Greene closed the gap to 24-19.
Ayden Lamons finished the half with a put-back bucket and West Greene led 26-19.
The Buffaloes used a balanced scoring effort on Tuesday with McCamey putting in 13 points while Lamons and Wisecarver each had 11 points. Conner Campbell and Elijah Williams both scored nine points.
“Once we settled into the game those guys played really well,” Tolliver said. “They did all of the things we talked about in the locker room at halftime. They executed the game plan really well and I thought it showed,” Tolliver said.
West Greene’s offense picked up the pace in the third quarter and scored 20 points. Wisecarver and Williams each hit from behind the arc in the early going to stretch the lead to 32-21.
North Greene was able to hang around behind a breakaway layup from Tyler Britton and a three-pointer from Carrico, but the Buffs closed the period on a 12-3 run to take a 46-31 lead.
McCamey started the run with a layup while a block by Lamons allowed Wisecarver to score on a fast break. Lamons scored three-points the hard way before the quarter ended.
West Greene’s biggest lead came at 55-32 on a layup by Wisecarver before North Greene scored the final four points of the night.
Carrico led North Greene on Tuesday with 14 points.
Both teams will be back in action on Wednesday in the Big H BBQ Bash at Cherokee High School. North Greene will look to get back on track against Cocke County at 3:30 p.m. while the Buffaloes will look to extend their win streak to seven games at 8 p.m. against Union County.
