North Greene finally got over the hump and sank University’s ship with a 51-48 win on Tuesday night.
“I felt like we really had to grind that one out. I told the guys all week, ‘I don’t want you to look at their record, that’s a good basketball team,’ and I know they’ve played a tough schedule and have a heck of a coach. They’re well-coached and that’s not a bad basketball team,” North Greene Head Coach Matt Weems stated. “Ultimately, I feel like we did enough to win. We did a good job rebounding the ball. I don’t feel like our shots were falling tonight, but we finally did a good job at recognizing that and attacked the rim.”
The Huskies finally finished a game late in the fourth quarter. The thing that had plagued North Greene at home all season long was finally put to rest. Face a nine-point deficit early? The Huskies learned to overcome it. Give up five-straight to blow a 4-point lead in the last two minutes of the fourth? The Huskies took the lead back. Free throws late in the fourth to potentially seal the game? Made ‘em.
Everything that had harmed North Greene’s chances of winning at home in the past were corrected in Tuesday night’s win. The win came at a perfect time with conference season now in effect. The Huskies improved to 8-11, but most importantly 2-0 versus District 1-1A competition.
“A lot of these close games this year haven’t went our way and I’ve been preaching to them to stay with the process. It’s going to happen over time. Tonight kind of felt like that came together for us a little bit. We had some adversity hit us and we responded well to that,” Coach Weems stated.
Thomas Darnell scored a team-high 14 points, (including 8 points in the fourth), Isaac Gaby scored 12, and Tyler Britton scored 11 to lead the Huskies. Janson West led all scorers with 21 points for University.
North Greene started from behind early and had a hard time catching up. Knox Poston started with a three-pointer and helped University lead through the whole first quarter. Jaiden Bailey scored first for North Greene, but was met with Janson West’s and-one on the other side of the court. Isaac Gaby’s layup cut the margin to three before University ended the quarter on a 5-0 run to lead 15-7 after one.
West started the second quarter with a three and helped the lead grow to its largest of the game at nine, 18-9. North Greene’s Tyler Britton helped reel them back in with seven-straight points. Britton’s floater, and-one, and transition layup cut it to two.
The Huskies finished on a 6-0 run to end the half and ended in style. Isaac Gaby heaved a 65-foot buzzer-beater attempt at the end of the half and sank it to send North Greene into the half with their first lead of the night leading 22-20.
Bailey’s three-pointer began the second half and started a fun third quarter. Knox Poston hit a three in response and sank a long mid-range and University High stole the lead back, 26-25.
Havoc Fair’s mid-range gave North Greene the lead back before Connor Gray’s floater regained the lead for University. Darnell’s and-one tied it 32-32 before West untied it with a three. Gaby’s three swung the lead back to North Greene and helped send the Huskies into the fourth with a 36-35 lead. The third quarter featured four lead changes and one tie.
The Huskies began the fourth quarter on a 4-0 run to extend their lead to five points. The lead would get axed to two after Poston’s three. Darnell scored every field goal for North Greene in the fourth and was huge down the stretch. Two of his buckets helped the Huskies lead 44-40 in the late stages.
“That’s what I expect out of Thomas,” Coach Weems stated. “I thought he made a lot of winning plays tonight. His shots weren’t falling in the first half but he was able to respond and keep his head down and keep chucking away at it.”
A minor blunder occurred when Janson West sank a three and then scored a layup after North Greene’s turnover to score five-straight very quickly and sent University ahead 45-44. Darnell then scored four-straight for North Greene and regained the lead, 48-45. Poston made a game-tying three and tied it 48-48.
The Huskies had the ball and called two timeouts before setting up a play to run. The play’s desired conclusion never came to fruition as Havoc Fair was fouled on a steal attempt with 9.9 seconds left when University was over the foul limit.
Fair made the first of two, but missed the second. Darnell quickly tipped the rebound back to Tyler Britton and the senior hugged the ball tightly and waited to be fouled.
Britton went a perfect 2-for-2 at the line and North Greene led 51-48 with seven seconds left. University had one last opportunity, but Poston’s three-point attempt at the buzzer was well off the mark. Poston argued for a foul call on the shot, but didn’t get what he was asking for.
North Greene survived to hang on and win 51-48 for their first home win since November’s season opener. The win helped them improve to 2-0 within the conference.
“That feels great. We’re really excited and we’ve got a good opportunity in front of us on Friday night against Unaka,” Weems stated.
North Greene plays Unaka again on Friday inside of Jerome Woolsey Gymnasium.
