KNOXVILLE – The Greeneville Lady Devils 2025-26 season didn’t start out how they wanted it to with a 72-55 loss at Bearden on Thursday night.
Before Greeneville knew it, they had already fallen behind 15-0 in the first half and couldn’t fight back from that deficit. The offense found success after the cold spell in the first quarter and had plenty to be happy about moving forward, but the Lady Greene Devils started out the season with an 0-1 record after Thursday’s loss to the Lady Bulldogs.
“We were scared of them. We were scared to death that first half. You can’t have four seniors and come out onto the floor and be scared of people. You got to go play,” Greeneville Head Coach Annette Watts expressed.
Brylee Tullock made her debut for Greeneville after transferring from David Crockett in the offseason. She did not disappoint, scoring 23 points and eclipsing 2,000 points for her career when she hit a half-court buzzer beater as time expired in the fourth quarter.
Maria Lyde was held to only one point with only three shot attempts in the first quarter, but finished with 14 points and scored 10 in the third quarter.
Although she only scored two points, Coach Watts was most impressed with senior newcomer Emma Shelton’s performance. “I’m surprised and really tickled for Emma Shelton. Emma came in and did some good things for us. Boxed out, rebounded, and hustled,” Coach Watts bragged.
Greeneville outscored Bearden 41-35 in the second half and showed lots of promise going forward.
“I felt like at halftime we made some adjustments and did some things and we got better in the second half. Was it good enough to win? No. But our goal was to get to 50 and we got to 55. And to hold them to 70 and they got to 70,” Coach Watts mentioned.
Scoring isn’t one of Coach Watts’s concerns with this team. The team’s defense or lack thereof is something she harped on after the game, “We can score. We just can’t defend. We’ll either find five who can defend or I don’t know what we’ll do. (I) may have a stroke.”
Bearden’s Natalya Hodge, a Missouri signee, led all scorers with 25 points in only three quarters. Emma Rainey had 16 and Riley Hunt had 15 for the Lady Bulldogs.
Greeneville turns right around for another hard non-conference showdown at Sevier County on Saturday at noon. “It’s another tough one Saturday. Sevier County is just like this team. But just hang with us. We’ll get better.”
After suffering a 72-55 defeat to Bearden we spoke with Lady Greene Devils Head Coach Annette Watts on what her thoughts are moving forward. pic.twitter.com/RzjfOXFKvU
— GreeneSportsZone (@GSportsZone) November 21, 2025
BOYS
Bearden 65, Greeneville 14
The Bearden boys handed Greeneville a 65-14 loss in their season opener for the 2025-26 season.
The Bulldogs started hot and were ahead 28-2 after the first quarter and never let off the gas. Greeneville struggled on offense and committed 33 turnovers with a 22.7% field goal percentage.
“We knew coming into the game that it was just going to be a really tough game for us. You’re playing a good team with experience, size, strength, toughness, and shooting. Just a really good team. We just didn’t have a lot of experience,” Greeneville Head Coach Brad Woolsey said.
Without players from the football team available Greeneville was playing shorthanded on Thursday.
Sean Capshaw led Bearden and all scorers with 12 points.
Greeneville had five scorers. Brooks Bowers led the way with five. Ryan Jobe scored three, and Andres Bowman, Trey Fields, and Ryan Maggert had two each.
