BRISTOL – The Greeneville Greene Devils made their annual trip to Viking Hall to play in one of the country’s best High School holiday tournaments, The Classic at Tennessee High School. In the first round the Devils struggled to hang with Milton Georgia, ranked 38th in the nation, and fell 69-35.
Greeneville coach Brad Woolsey said, “Playing teams like this exposes you. We can see where we have to improve as we get deeper and deeper into the regular season.”
The Devils got on the board first when Zaydyn Anderson drove the lane for a sweet little finger roll layup in traffic, but the speedy Eagles quickly jumped out to a 7-2 lead. Greeneville got a three ball by Trey Thompson from the elbow, then Isaac McGill hit one of two from the line, as did Yordan Mills before Cole Franklin made free throws to close the gap to 9-7.
Milton’s Josh Dixon hit a little runner in the lane and was fouled in the process, he made the free throw. As the quarter was winding down he sank a deep three-pointer to give the Eagles a 15-9 lead after one quarter of play.
The second quarter started much like the first quarter ended with Dixon hitting a floater in the lane and then a layup. Thompson used the left hand for a layup to keep the Devils close at 19-11. Mills went in the lane for a layup and Dom Tweed cashed in on a layup as well.
Then the Devils started getting beat in transition and fell behind 32-18. Thompson hit a pair of free throws followed by a put back through contact. Thompson hit the free throw to complete the three-point play and cut the lead to 32-23 at the half.
The third quarter was not very good to the Devils as they were held scoreless for the first four minutes and 55 seconds. In the meantime, the Eagles had everything going their way with Dixon, a Milwaukee signee, controlling the game on both ends of the court. The Eagles stretched out their lead to 49-28 over the Devils to end the third quarter.
The fourth quarter was just a formality at this point as most of the starters were replaced by the reserves and the Devils would fall to the Milton Eagles 69-35.
Thompson led the Devils with 15 points and seven rebounds, Franklin had seven points and five rebounds off the bench. Dixon scored a game-high 30 points for the Eagles.
The Devils will play Daniel Boone on the Saturday at 9am with still a chance for a sixth-place finish.
