RUTLEDGE – The Greeneville girls basketball team went to Grainger on Friday and controlled the boards on the way to a 61-45 win that clinches the top seed in the upcoming District 2-3A Tournament.
“Win the boards,” said Greeneville Lady Devils coach Annett Watts. “It’s always a goal of ours to win the battle of the boards, our players set the goals, and that’s the only reason we won this game tonight.”
Maria Lyde led the way with 10 rebounds, Kyla Jobe followed with 9, Julia Woolsey had 8 and Abby Adkins had 7.
The Lady Devils jumped out to a 9-2 led after Jobe drilled a corner three but Grainger fought back with a pair of three pointers by Ava Dillinger and McKinley Mills respectively to draw within one at 9-8 midway through the first quarter. Adkins hit a layup from in front and moments later sank a pair of free throws. Matea Gray rolled one in at the buzzer to give the Lady Devils a 16-12 led after one quarter of play.
Lyde scored the first five points of the second quarter, and after a 10-foot jump shot by Adkins the Lady Devils had a nine-point lead at 23-14. The Lady Grizzlies clawed their way back to within four when Jaylee Hayes hit a corner three and a layup in transition. Greeneville went up 29-23 at the half thanks to a layup by Lyde, a free throw each by Jobe and Woolsey, and a late bucket by Adkins.
The Lady Devils extended their led to 10 points at 35-25 on Gray’s runner in the lane and the two teams were fairly even for the rest of the quarter. Greeneville held a nine-point lead at 48-39 heading into the final quarter.
Lyde and Jobe each hit one of two from the line as the fourth quarter started and Woolsey’s free-throw-line jumper kept the Lady Devils up nine at 52-43. Then Lyde took over, scoring in the paint on consecutive possessions. Jobe hit a pair at the stripe and Lyde produced the dagger with a euro step drive in the lane through contact. Her free toss was good to put the Lady Devils up 61-45, and the Lady Devils were on their way to victory and the top seed in the District 2-3A Tournament.
The Lady Devils were led in scoring by Lyde with 22 points, Gray added 12 while Woolsey and Adkins each hit double figures with 10 points.
BOYS
GREENEVILLE 71, GRAINGER 45
The Greeneville Greene Devils played in front of a packed Grainger High School gymnasium as the fans were out to see one of the state’s premier players in Trey Thompson. Thompson’s performance was worth the price of admission on Friday night as he scored 37 points and led the Greene Devils to a 71-45 win.
Thompson scored the first 11 points for the Greene Devils. He started the game with a corner three and on the next possession he hit a triple from the elbow. That was followed with a three point play the hard way. He ended his 11-point streak with a steal and went coast to coast for the lay in. A short jumper in the lane by Dom Tweed had the Devils up 13-4 with 3:30 to play in quarter number one. Thompson then raked off a rebound and outran everyone to the goal for the jam that sent the Grizz into a timeout. After the timeout Thompson took an alley-oop pass from Cole Smith for a reverse dunk to put the Devils up 19-4. The Devils led 21-6 after one quarter of action.
Zaydyn Anderson drove the lane for an easy layup as the second quarter began. Tweed drilled a triple from the elbow and Cole Franklin went for an up and under layup and the Devils were up 28-12. Taren Claridy then picked up a loose ball and threw a full court pass to Thompson for the dunk. Thompson was intentionally fouled on the dunk, he made the free throw and the intentional free throw for the rarest of rare four-point play on a two-point shot. At the half Greeneville led 38-14.
The Devils came out of the locker room a little flat and were outscored by The Grizzle’s 20-10 before Thompson dished the ball off to Claridy for a dunk that sparked the Devils and put them up by 16 at 50-34 after three quarters.
Thompson hit back-to-back layups before nailing a corner three to get the Devil advantage back to 20 points at 57-37. Thompson was taken out of the game around the midway point of the fourth quarter and the fans began to file out at that point as they had seen what they came to see. Thompson dropped 37 points in a 71-45 Greene Devil win.
Anderson was the only other devil in double figures with 10 points, although the shorthanded Devils placed eight players in the scoring column.
Greene Devil Head Coach Brad Woolsey later said, “It’s great to play here, Grainger is a great place to play, a great environment. Now we’ll take the next step and continue to get better and try to get better, get better at practice and see where things fall.”
