The South Greene boys were red hot from behind the arc and made a dozen three-pointers on their way to a wire-to-wire win over Grainger on Friday night, 70-53.
It had been 26 days since South Greene played inside of their home gym. The Rebel faithful were hungry for action and were fed plenty. Just like Grainger’s Lady Grizzlies earlier, South Greene started scorching hot and made their first three shots before taking a 15-0 lead.
The Rebels controlled the contest from start to finish and never let the deficit get any lower than six points after the first quarter.
Although Rebels Head Coach Terry Hoese was happy with the win, he didn’t feel like South Greene played up to their potential.
“I didn’t feel like we played well. We did get a good win and we got a much-needed win, but (Grainger) also has a kid with a torn meniscus and another kid he sent home tonight with a 101-degree fever. So they were missing two of his best players. With that said, I don’t feel like we did anything special tonight. We did get the win. I’m very happy with the win,” he emphasized.
Gavin Dyer was South Greene’s leading scorer and hit half of its three-pointers with six total from beyond the perimeter. Dyer finished with a game-high 21 points. Will Arrowood was money in the second half and scored 14 points with four three-pointers.
Carver Turley scored a team-high 19 points for Grainger.
South Greene improved to 9-8 with the victory.
Dyer scored the game-high 21 and started right away with a three on South Greene’s first possession. Lucas Couch followed with a baseline layup and Dyer came back with another triple before Grainger called a timeout with the Rebels leading 8-0 after starting 3-for-3.
Gavin Dyer didn’t cool off and splashed another long ball. Couch followed with another layup with a foul tacked on to the end of the play. Couch missed the foul shot, but Noah Wright grabbed the rebound and scored a second-chance bucket to complete a four-point trip for the Rebels. The lead grew to 15-0 before Grainger made their first field goal with a minute and-a-half left in the quarter.
South Greene held a commanding 18-2 lead after the first. “It’s good when you can always get a lead early,” Coach Hoese said.
Grainger started the second how South Greene started the first. The Grizzlies went 3-for-3 to open up the second and cut the deficit to 11 by the end of the half. South Greene led 31-20 at halftime.
The Grizzlies opened up the second on a 7-2 run and cut the margin to six before the Rebels gained their mojo back. Jameson White nailed a triple to give South Greene a spark. The spark created a flame with Gavin Dyer’s next three. The flame created a fire as Will Arrowood nailed two-straight threes to help break the game open again. The Rebels led 52-38 after three.
“Will Arrowood came in there in the second half and knocked down some huge shots,” Hoese stated.
Arrowood didn’t cool off between quarters and made another pair of triples to keep Grainger in the rear view mirror. Jameson White put the game away for good with a steal and layup to give South Greene their biggest lead at 17.
South Greene coasted to the finish line and won 70-53.
The Rebels host Happy Valley on Tuesday in their first District 1-2A game of the new year.
GIRLS
GRAINGER 60, SOUTH GREENE 36
The South Greene girls welcomed Grainger into Greene County on Friday night and started slow and could never catch back up in a 60-36 loss to the Lady Grizzlies.
The Lady Rebels fell behind 12-0 in the first quarter and had trouble beating Grainger’s press defense as the game got out of hand quickly. South Greene managed to outscore Grainger for the rest of the half after falling behind by a dozen, but came out flat in the third quarter and suffered a 12-3 run that made their deficit larger and insurmountable.
“We knew what Grainger was going to do to us. We’d watched a lot of film. The same thing happened over there. They jumped out 8-0 and we used two timeouts early. Sort of a carbon copy of the same thing that happened at Grainger,” Lady Rebels Head Coach Stephen Gregg said.
South Greene didn’t have anybody reach double figures in scoring. Ari Hoese led them with nine points. Eight different Lady Rebels scored.
Adison Hayes led all scorers with 22 points. Brookelyn Roach scored 14 points.
The Lady Rebels are 9-8 after the loss.
“It was just bad on the defensive side as much as it was on the offense. Just a bad night. We never really did feel like we were getting into fight,” Gregg explained.
Grainger made some noise quickly and started out with a 5-0 lead and made Coach Gregg burn a timeout early. The lead grew to 12-0 before Neveah Davis made a layup with a few ticks under two and-a-half left in the first. Sam Birdwell downed a three-pointer before the buzzer sounded at the end of the period. Grainger led 17-7 after one quarter.
“We came out flat and you don’t do that to a good team,” Coach Gregg mentioned.
The Lady Rebels had the most success in the second quarter and outscored Grainger 11-10. Birdwell scored another basket to begin the quarter. Paisley Brobeck’s layup ended a stretch of seven-straight that forced Grainger to call a timeout with the score sitting at 17-11. The Lady Grizzlies immediately went on a 5-0 run to bump the margin back to double digits. Alexa Gabbard’s 4-point run cut the deficit to seven late in the half. Grainger led 27-18 at the break.
The Lady Grizzlies came out of the locker room and went on a 7-1 run to open the half and quickly go ahead by 15. The Lady Rebels only scored 7 points in the third and dropped behind 47-25 after three.
Ari Hoese scored six of her nine points in the fourth to cut that deficit to 15. But like before, Grainger scored seven in-a-row to lead 56-34. The final margin grew to 24 by the end as Grainger won 60- 36.
“Hats off to Grainger for coming in. They wanted to fight tonight. They were the aggressor from the get go. They pushed us around,” Coach Gregg stated.
South Greene stays home and welcomes Happy Valley on Tuesday night for District 1-2A action.
