Tough defense carried the South Greene girls on Monday night as they picked up a 49-29 win over West Greene.
“We executed some in-game stuff really well today,” South Greene coach Stephen Gregg said. “I felt like we were flying around on defense and reading the ball well. I was glad to see us get after it on defense tonight. We dominated on the boards, and when you play good defense and grab rebounds good things will happen. But we have to do a better job of turning those turnovers into offense.”
The Lady Rebels took care of business on their home floor and they got some help from Unicoi County as the Lady Blue Devils took down Johnson County 55-34 on Monday. Because of the Johnson County loss South Greene can clinch the top seed in the District 1-2A Tournament with a win at Chuckey-Doak on Friday.
South Greene is now 7-2 in league play, Johnson County is 7-3, Unicoi County 6-3 and West Greene is now 5-5.
South Greene’s defense set the tone early and that was in large part due to Paisley Brobeck flying all over the floor and getting her hands on several West Greene passes.
The Lady Rebels were not quick to turn those turnovers into points, but with 4:36 left to play Brobeck took a steal at midcourt and went the other way for a 6-0 lead.
The first quarter closed with Kortnei Bailey nailing a three-pointer for South Greene as it took a 11-2 led.
The defensive effort Gregg was most pleased with came from Samantha Birdwell as she locked down West Greene’s top scorer, Payton Norton. Norton has been on a hot streak lately, but because of Birdwell’s relentless effort she was held scoreless on Monday.
“We held a really good player to one field-goal attempt. Samantah Birdwell did a great job on her,” Gregg said. “That was one of our big in-game goals, because she can score at a high level. Samantha keyed on her, and embraced that challenge.”
Four points from Bailey in the early portion of the second quarter and a three-pointer from Ari Hoese stretched South Greene’s lead to 18-6.
Alexa Gabbard and Trinity Borner came off the bench for South Greene and continued to apply pressure on the defensive end for the length of the floor. The duo made finding any rhythm tough on West Greene while giving South Greene more opportunities on offense.
Four points from Madison Wagner allowed West Greene to close the gap to close the gap to 18-10, but Birdwell followed with four points for South Greene.
The first half closed with Hoese grabbing an offensive rebound and setting up Reagan Arrowood for a triple that stretched the Lady Rebels’ lead to 25-12.
The second half got going with South Greene’s Neveah Davis using a steal in the back court to set up Bailey for a layup. Davis then stretched the lead to 30-14 when she knocked down a three-pointer.
Triples from Bailey and Hoese followed, and when Birdwell landed a runner from the baseline South Greene led 38-15.
South Greene had been struggling from beyond the arc in recent contests, but on Monday they sank seven three-pointers.
“We actually shot the three well tonight. Over the last four games we were 11-of-77 from three, but tonight was much better and much more efficient,” Gregg said.
West Greene was able to find some success with layups from Erica Davis and Neveah Fillers, but the Lady Rebels closed the third quarter leading 42-21.
With 5:08 left to play Davis hit from deep in the left corner to give South Greene its biggest lead at 47-22.
In the late stages West Greene’s Neveah Rowe scored four points in the paint and Kahlie Edwards knocked down a three-pointer.
The game was called with 1:54 left in the fourth quarter. West Greene’s Davis went to the ground hard and she was removed from the floor by paramedics.
Bailey led all scorers on Monday with 18 points while Birdwell and Hoese each scored eight points for South Greene.
Davis scored eight points for West Greene.
