The South Greene boys struggled in a lot of ways on Friday night, but they found something that worked late and pulled away from Grainger for a 61-50 victory.
“We got outplayed tonight, we got outhustled, we got outshot, and the only place we won was on the scoreboard,” South Greene coach Terry Hoese said. “If we play like this most nights we don’t come out with a win. We’re going to have play better, but we were fortunate to win. We have some things to fix, but I’d rather be 5-1 than 1-5.”
The Rebels started the fourth quarter leading by 10 points, but within the first minute of the period Grainger’s Grant Jarnigan knocked down a three-pointer and Kade Williams turned a steal by Carter Williams into a layup that closed the gap to 46-41.
With 3:18 left the Grizzlies closed the gap to 50-48 when Kade Williams put back his own miss.
Hoese called a timeout and out of the break the focus for the Rebels was forcing the ball into the paint and using their size to overpower the Grizzlies. A high-low feed from Jase Roderick to Chandler Gamble got South Greene rolling.
Roderick then finished a steal by Trey Gentry with a dunk before Gamble scored from the block two more times. South Greene finished the night on an 11-2 run to escape with a 61-50 win.
“I feel like we could do that all-night on most teams, but that’s not how I want to play,” Hoese said. “If they go on to college Chandler and Jase are not going to play inside, they’ll be out in space. I want them to go play, but It’s nice to know that when we have to, we can pound the ball inside and get buckets.”
The night started with a closely contested first quarter in which Grainger got triples from Ivan Stratton, Konner Kincaid and Kade Williams. Gamble scored nine points for the Rebels, but the Grizzlies led 15-14 at the close of the period.
South Greene found a new gear in the early portion of the second quarter and quickly moved up and down the floor, outscoring Grainger 17-1.
“We sped them up by jumping into a little half-court trap,” Hoese. “They made some bad passes and we took advantage. We knocked down some shots, and we had guys come off the bench and give us a boost. If those role players can come in and give us something it makes us a lot better.”
Gentry started the period by stealing the ball in the back court and delivering it Gamble for a dunk. The Rebels scored 12 consecutive points capped by Caden Fillers receiving and pass from across the block from Noah Wright and tapping it off the glass for a 26-15 lead.
Gavin Dyer pushed the lead to 31-16 when he knocked down his second three-pointer of the period.
Williams scored six points over the final 1:39 of the first half as Grainger closed the gap to 35-26 at the break.
Gamble scored six of his 25 points in the third quarter, but South Greene’s advantage only increased by one point to 46-36 at the close of the period.
Rodrick put in 17 points for South Greene on Friday. Williams led all scorers with 28 points for the Grizzlies.
GIRLS
Grainger 62, South Greene 42
The South Greene girls showed flashes on Friday night, but they could not find the plays they needed late to close the gap in a 62-46 loss to Grainger.
“It was just good to get out and play tonight, because we haven’t played in two weeks,” South Greene coach Stephen Gregg said. “We just couldn’t do some of the little things at the end to deserve to win. We missed some free throws and easy shots in the lane that could have made the game interesting. Second chance opportunities really killed us. Our defense forced them into the shot we wanted, but then they got rebound and kicked out at what seemed like the wort times. We’ll grow and learn, but how we played was not the recipe for victory.”
Friday’s action started with the first quarter going back and forth. Grainger’s biggest lead of the period came at 13-8 when Cora Dalton knocked down a three-pointer. South Greene came back and evened the score at 13 -13. Kortnei Bailey first found Madison Hensley cutting through the lane for a layup and then Hensley tied things with a triple from the left wing.
Hensley struck again from deep to close the quarter, but Grainger ended the period leading 17-16.
Hensley picked up her second foul early in the second quarter and South Greene struggled to find points without her on the floor. At the same time Grainger took advantage of extra opportunities on the offensive glass and pulled out to a 26-18 lead.
South Greene only managed to score seven points in the second quarter and Grainger led 32-23 at halftime.
In the third quarter South Greene got into the paint with early layups from Hensley, Samantha Birdwell, Ari Hoese and Kortnei Bailey, but at the same time Grainger got triples from Brooklyn Roach, Briley Caldwell and Jaylee Hayes as the lead extended to 41-31.
Late in the period South Greene had a chance to close the gap at the free-throw line, and did cut things to 42-35, but four missed free tosses prevented the gap from narrowing further.
South Greene tried to apply pressure in the fourth quarter to cut into the lead, but instead it led to open three-pointers for the Lady Grizzlies. In the first 2:18 of the period Caldwell, Maribeth Stratton and Adison Hayes all connected on triples to push the lead to 53-37.
South Greene did get driving buckets from Hensley, Hoese, Bailey and Natlie Foshie in the closing stretch, but the Lady Rebels could not put a dent in Grainger’s lead.
Hensley led all scorers on Friday with 19 points, Bailey had 11 points and Foshie scored 10.
Grainger put 11 players in the scoring column with Caldwell and Hayes each scoring 10 points.
