CHURCH HILL – The Greeneville Lady Greene Devils took down the Grainger Lady Grizzlies 64-40 in the District 2-3A championship game on Monday night at Volunteer High School.
Both teams will be at home in the first round of the regional tournament on Friday. Greeneville will host Unicoi County while Grainger will host Elizabethton.
“Everyone can keep doubting us. We can keep defying the odds and I promise you we aren’t done yet!” Greeneville Coach Annette Watts yelled after cutting down the net following a convincing district championship victory.
After a very scrappy and physical first quarter the Lady Greene Devils found themselves up by three points, leading the Lady Grizzlies 9-6.
Coach Watts said, “It was a defensive game at the start for sure but if we can turn our defense into offense we can win a lot of games.”
In the second quarter, the Lady Greene Devils looked to stretch their lead but Grainger’s tough defense kept things at bay. Fortunately for Greeneville thedefense didn’t let up, holding the Lady Grizzlies to seven points. Getting the halftime score to 23-13 with Greeneville still on top.
Tournament MVP Maria Lyde said, “We got our confidence going. We shoot, if it goes in then it goes in, if it doesn’t we know have some great rebounders. Everyone is always hustling and getting back on defense. Everything fell into its place.”
In the third quarter, Greeneville came out red, outscoring Grainger 22-5. Ending in the quarter on an 11-0 run to bring the score to 45-18.
Senior Kyla Jobe said, “I think we were a little slow in the first half, but once we took that pressure off ourselves we kind of went crazy. Thank goodness for my teammates getting up and down the court. We had 38 fast break points. We definitely broke the press.”
In the fourth quarter, all the players wearing green and white never took their foot off the gas and hustled every second until the buzzer sounded. Lyde finished the night with 17 points and 13 rebounds. Abby Adkins had 17 points and eight rebounds for the Lady Greene Devils. Julia Woolsey had 16 points and eight rebounds.
Senior Abby Adkins said, “This means the world to me. It’s always good to beat Grainger, in any sport. Now we have to keep preparing and working just as hard as we have been all year to keep the season going”.
