The Greeneville girls basketball team looked dead in the water heading into the fourth quarter on Tuesday night against Albertville, Alabama in the Andrew Johnson Bank Ladies.
But the Lady Greene Devils refused to go down easy and made a comeback for the ages as they erased an 18-point deficit over the final 4:44 to earn an 80-72 win.
“I called a timeout and told them that it’s in their hands and their hearts. The only thing they could do was play as hard as they could for four minutes. And all five of them of them went as hard as they could go,” Greeneville coach Annette Watts said. “We beat a very good team today. I’m tickled right now. You can go a long way if you have players that are just going hard and they believe.”
The 18-point comeback is the largest deficit the Lady Devils have erased under Watts, besting a 14-point comeback against South Greene in 2021.
Tuesday’s third quarter was as ugly as the home-town crowd could have imagined. Greeneville started the period down 36-34, but after 13 consecutive missed field goals that deficit ballooned to 53-40 going into the fourth quarter.
Greeneville went 6:56 without scoring and did not make a field goal in the third quarter until the 13-second mark when Allison Hayes sank a three-pointer.
In the early portion of the fourth quarter Greeneville got three-pointers from Julia Woolsey and Brylee Tullock, but it could not get stops and Albertville’s lead grew to 64-46.
With 4:44 left to play things began to turn for the Lady Devils when Tullock drove the lane and landed a runner through contact. She turned it into three points, and almost as soon as the free throw went through the net Woolsey stole possession on the baseline. She also scored through contact for another old-fashioned-three-point play.
Another turnover allowed Maria Lyde to score on an inbound play, and in just 20 seconds of game time Greeneville scored eight points to close the gap to 64-54.
A couple of tough offensive rebounds by Woolsey really got the Lady Devils going in the right direction. First she grabbed an offensive board on a free throw which led to her scoring on an inbound play. Twenty seconds later she put back a missed charity toss by Lyde to close the gap to 67-65.
With 2:06 left to play Woolsey evened things at 67-67 when Tullock found her coming down the baseline for a lay in.
“I had taken Julia out of the game because she wouldn’t shoot, but then finished with 14 points and wasn’t that great,” Watts said. “She sparked things for us and it takes those hustle plays. I know she is tired, she has guarded the best player on the floor the last two days. She responded and that is wonderful from a sophomore.”
Tullock then gave Greeneville its first lead of the second half when she nailed two free ones with 1:36 left to play. In the closing minute Tullock took care of business at the free-throw line, going 10-for-10 to seal Greeneville’s win.
Tullock finished the night with 35 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists. She scored 22 points in the fourth quarter and led Greeneville to 40 points in the final frame.
“I bragged on Brylee’s defense tonight after the game, but that helped her offensive game. If we can teach her that if she plays on both ends of the floor that it will elevate her game to a new level she can have great collegiate career,” Watts said.
After starting the second half 0-for-13 from the field the Lady Greene Devils made 12 of their next 14 shot attempts to turn the game around. Watts is hopeful that her team carries forward the lessons learned on Tuesday, and that they play the rest of the year like they are never out of a ball game.
“Energy picked up and energy takes you to the basket. When you are missing three-pointers go to the basket. Then I think running the press and forcing turnovers brought that energy up. It takes good stuff to make good stuff happen,” Watts said. “They saw tonight that they can come back from 18 points down. This is a game of runs, you are going to get down, and they saw what it takes to make a comeback.”
Albertville played in front for much of the first quarter and Mississippi State commit Lani Smallwood started things by scoring the first six points of the evening.
Greeneville took the lead at 7-6 on a transition layup from Lyde, but that led lasted 10 seconds. Gracyn Robeson scored eight points for the Aggies and the lead grew to 19-11.
With eight seconds on the clock Greeneville worked the ball to Tullock for an open three that closed the gap top 19-16 at the close of the quarter.
Greeneville carried that momentum into the second quarter and it scored 14 straight points to go in front 30-19. Lyde scored six points in the stretch, Emma Shelton scored from the block, while Hayes and Tullock hit from deep.
Albertville answered with a 17-4 run to close the quarter. Smallwood continued her red-hot night and scored 11 of those points to give the Aggies a 36-34 lead at the midway point.
Smallwood finished Tuesday with 33 points and seven rebounds. Mylie Butler scored 13 points and Whitley Booker had 12 for Albertville.
For Greeneville Lyde had 21 points and seven rebounds, and Woolsey had 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
Greeneville will be back in action at 2 p.m. on Wednesday against Farmington, Arkansas in the fifth-place game.
CHEROKEE 64, CHUCKEY-DOAK 36
In its final game at the Andrew Johnson Bank Ladies Classic Chuckey-Doak could not hang with Cherokee on Tuesday morning and fell 64-36.
Chuckey-Doak scored the first points of the day on a layup by Jayden Myers, but then the Lady Black Knights trailed for the final 30:50 of the contest. Cherokee got three-pointers from Elizabeth Coward and Chloe Pearson, and then Rylee Sivert scored eight points as the Lady Chiefs took a 14-8 lead.
On the first possession of the second quarter Myers hit from beyond the arc to close the gap to 14-11, but then Cherokee went on an 18-0 run over the next three minutes.
Sivert ran the floor to score 10 points in the stretch and Pearson stepped outside to sink a pair of three-pointers. After a steal by Sivert Brooke Nelson capped the run with a transition layup that pushed the lead to 32-14.
Chuckey-Doak’s Carlene Bishop broke the run with a triple. Bishop hit from deep again and Chloe Kirkpatrick sank another triple for the Lady Knights, but Cherokee went to halftime leading 43-22.
Sivert scored 22 points in the first half for Cherokee and finished Tuesday with 24 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
In the third quarter Coward took over the scoring for the Lady Chiefs as she put in 11 points. For Chuckey-Doak Bishop slashed through the lane twice and sank a three-pointer on her way to seven points in the period.
Cherokee’s lead grew to 56-31 by the start of the fourth quarter.
The scoring slowed in the final period, but Cherokee stayed in front on the way to a 64-36 win.
Bishop led Chuckey-Doak with 16 points on Tuesday and Myers had 13 points.
For Cherokee Coward scored 14 points, and Pearson added 11.
Chuckey-Doak will be back in action on Friday at North Greene.
