The Chuckey-Doak boys were able to give North Greene a scare in the second half on Friday, but the Huskies closed strong and got out of Lower Afton with a 55-42 win.
“It was little Jekyll and Hyde at times, but you kind of expect that coming off a long break,” North Greene coach Sam Tarlton said. “I thought we had some really good parts of the first half, but we really struggled through the first six minutes of the second half. Consistency has been our theme all year. We looked good at times, but if we can be more consistent, we might get where we want to go.”
Friday’s third quarter started with North Greene leading 31-20, and after Lance Carrico sank a jumper from the elbow the Huskies were in front 33-20.
The Black Knights responded with their best offensive stretch of the night and cut that lead down to two points. Gavin Crum started the run with a three-pointer, and triples from Ryland Grindstaff and Blake Lippard followed. Lippard’s bucket fell through with 2:55 left in the quarter and cut the Huskies’ lead to 35-33.
Tarlton called a timeout and out of it North Greene found the defensive intensity that carried it for much of the night, finishing the quarter on a 9-1 run.
“We have to control what we can control, and that’s energy and effort,” Tarlton said. “We just weren’t playing hard. It doesn’t matter what I call if we aren’t playing hard. We flipped that switch late in the third and got going again. But a lot of nights giving up that kind of lead will get you beat. We have to be better than that.”
Lawson Davenport got North Greene’s offense going with a turnaround jumper and Thomas Darnell followed it with a putback. Over the final 48 seconds of the third quarter Tyler Britton sank a jump shot from the lane and followed with a corner three that gave the Huskies a 44-34 advantage.
Ben Palazzo scored the first points of the fourth quarter for Chuckey-Doak, but then Davenport slashed through the lane a couple of times and stretched North Greene’s lead to 51-36. North Greene’s biggest lead came at 54-38 after Britton hit from behind the arc.
The Huskies finished leading 55-42.
Friday’s action started with Carrico connecting from behind the arc twice and Davenport doing so once for a 9-2 lead. Buckets from Jaiden Bailey, Darnell, Isaac Gaby and Yeshua Vaught followed and North Greene’s lead grew to 17-5.
That group also played an important role on defense on Friday as they kept pressure on Chuckey-Doak’s Grindstaff and held the dangerous scorer to 10 points. When the teams squared off on December 5 Grindstaff scored 21 points for Chuckey-Doak. No other Black Knight made it into double figures on Friday.
“We just have to know our scout and where we can help,” Tarlton said. “The first time we played them (Grindstaff) hurt us transition. We did a good job of stopping the ball and staying down on his fakes.”
The first quarter closed with North Greene leading 17-7.
The Black Knights’ Chance Malone scored five points in the early part of the second quarter, but North Greene got going again and when Davenport drained a trey from the left wing the Huskies held a 29-12 advantage.
Four points in the final 43 seconds from Chuckey-Doak’s Dom Atchison closed the gap to 31-20 at halftime.
Davenport led North Greene with 19 points, Carrico had 15 and Britton finished the night with 10 points.
