ROGERSVILLE – North Greene did almost everything right in the first, second, and fourth quarters, but the Huskies let one bad quarter hurt them as they suffered a suffered a 78-71 loss on the road to Cherokee on Friday night.
“If we play the third quarter the way we did the first, second, and fourth quarters we probably walk away with a W tonight. Our energy, and our intensity, and our level of focus during those three quarters were really good. But coming out of halftime we were dead,” Huskies Head Coach Matt Weems said.
The Huskies kryptonite has been the third quarter so far this season. Coach Weems spoke about it afterwards and how it has affected them up to this point in the season. “That’s kind of been the story all season. We’ve not been able to put four quarters together consistently. That’s disappointing and frustrating. I told them in the locker room we are close. We are so close to being really good,” Weems mentioned.
North Greene outscored Cherokee by five in the first, second, and fourth quarters but were outscored by 11 in the third and eventually fell behind by 17 in the fourth. Tyler Britton scored a game-high 26 points and scored 16 of those in the fourth to lead a comeback effort. The Huskies managed to pull within four, but couldn’t overcome the large deficit in full.
The Huskies fall to 4-7 on the season after the loss.
Britton began the game hot from outside the arc with a pair of triples to lead the game off with a 6-0 lead. The Huskies were in control early and led by as much as 11-3 after Havoc Fair’s layup and Thomas Darnell’s and-one play.
Cherokee’s trio of Landon Jones, Elijah Carmack, and Isaiah Jones worked together to pull within one at the end of the quarter. Jones and Carmack made layups before Jeffers made a pair of three-point buckets to go along with Carmack’s triple. North Greene led 18-17 after one quarter.
Cherokee took their first lead early in the second with a put-back layup by Jones. Fair took the lead right back with a layup on the next possession. That layup kickstarted an 8-2 run for the Huskies that allowed them to move in front 27-21. Darnell scored five points during the run.
The Chiefs would soon go on a 9-0 run of their own to regain the lead. Branson Mowell and Grayson Hughes stepped off the bench and helped during that run. Mowell scored five-straight with a layup and three pointer. Hughes landed a jumper to take the lead.
Darnell netted a free throw to end the run. Isaac Gaby made a layup on North Greene’s last possession of the half to tie the game 32-32 at the half.
The wheels began to fall off as soon as the third quarter started. Landon Jeffers and Elijah Carmack drained three-point shots to go up 38-32. Gavin Lawson and Isaiah Jones made layups to later extend the lead to 47-34. Carmack’s next triple boosted the score to 50-38. North Greene trailed 56-45 heading into the fourth.
The largest deficit North Greene faced was a 67-50 hole with 5:26 remaining. From there North Greene went on a 14-4 run to all of a sudden make it interesting down the stretch. Tyler Britton came alive and nailed a trio of triples and Isaac Gaby added one to go with it.
“Tyler is a shooter. Isaac made several back there also. If we play fast and have some confidence, there’s not a shot on the court that either of those two can’t knock down,” Coach Weems said. “Tyler got real hot in the fourth quarter and felt like the rim looked like it was about three times bigger than it actually was. He’s a shooter and he’s capable of getting hot and getting hot fast,” Weems stated.
The Huskies went 3-for-4 on their next two trips to the charity stripe and all of a sudden it was 71-67. With less than two minutes to go. Cherokee chose not to hold the ball and took some ill-advised shots to keep the door open. North Greene went cold from the field when they had the opportunities to inch closer in crunch time.
The Huskies fell to the Chiefs 78-71 on Friday night.
“I’m proud of our effort for digging back. We dug ourselves a big hole. We fought back and made it competitive. We turned the pressure up on them and I don’t feel like they handled it really well. Gave ourselves a chance, but it was too big of a deficit to overcome,” Coach Weems expressed.
Tyler Britton’s 26 points led all scorers and led the Huskies. Havoc Fair scored 16, Thomas Darnell had 14, and Isaac Gaby delivered 13.
Gavin Lawson led Cherokee with 16 points. Landon Jeffers had 15, Elijah Carmack scored 13, and Isaiah Jones delivered 10.
North Greene looks to get back on track with a date in Mosheim on Tuesday night visiting West Greene.
