MORRISTOWN – The Greeneville boys basketball team had its chances late on Friday night, but the game got away in the final seconds and they fell to Morristown East 62-61.
“I didn’t think we played particularly well tonight, but that will come with time,” Greeneville coach Brad Woolsey said. “Offensively we didn’t have any flow, but I think once we get this group playing together that will come. We had some opportunities down the stretch, but we didn’t execute, and part of that is because we haven’t had much time to work on those late-game situations.”
The Greene Devils were playing just their second game with a complete roster after the return of their football players, but still they were without some key contributors due to injury. At times they showed flashes of potential, but for much of the night the new look rotation looked like it was still learning to play together.
“We’ll get better. I expected us to look better than how we played, but our flow wasn’t there,” Woolsey said. “There were just some times where we weren’t focused on what we needed to be. One of the big things was when things didn’t go our way we hung our heads, and we can’t do that. That’s an area we need to learn from and get better.”
The fourth quarter started with Greeneville leading 50-48, but five fouls in the first 2:09 let Morristown East swing in front 57-50.
Braylen Kidwell got the Greene Devils going when he put back a rebound through contact and turned it into three points. He followed that with a long pass that led to Zy Neal converting a breakaway layup.
With 2:32 left to play Neal made one at the foul line to even the score at 57-57.
Greeneville’s Yordan Mills made two free throws with 39 seconds left to again tie things at 61-61. On its next possession Greeneville had a chance to go in front but threw away possession before it could get a shot off.
In the waning seconds Greeneville’s tough defense looked like it forced a back court violation and a five-second call on an inbound pass, but the officials let the Hurricanes play through both.
With six seconds left Jaxson Archer made one at the free throw line to put the Hurricanes in front 62-61.
Greeneville had one last chance and Mills moved up the floor quickly before he found Parker Quillen in the corner for a triple, but the shot clanged off the iron.
The first quarter went back and forth but Greeneville went in front with 1:42 left when Mills landed a three-pointer from deep in the right corner. Taren Claridy stretched the advantage to 16-12 when he stole the ball at midcourt and turned it into a breakaway dump.
East finished the period on a 7-0 run and Archer beat the buzzer with a three-pointer to take a 19-16 lead.
In the second quarter the lead grew to 23-18 when Chance Stokely hit a turnaround jumper from the lane.
Neal got Greeneville going with a step-up triple and Mills closed the gap to 26-25 by taking a steal the other way.
At the buzzer Mills launched a triple from 25 feet to close the gap to 33-30.
With 5:39 left in the third quarter a big block by Claridy led to a triple from Kidwell on the other end that put the Devils in front 37-33.
Greeneville’s biggest lead of the night came with 3:01 left in the third period when Kidwell connected on a corner three. Kidwell led Greeneville on Friday with 19 points while he also some important plays on defense.
“He carried us at times when we were struggling,” Woolsey said. “He did a great job putting the ball in the basket, he had those two threes in the third quarter that were huge. He did a great job tonight.”
East’s Aaron Carpenter closed the period with a triple at the horn that closed the gap to 50-48.
Mills finished with 13 points for Greeneville and Neal put in 11 points.
For Morristown East Archer scored 18, Carpenter had 13 and Stokely 11.
