Lady Rebels Let Lead Slip Away In District Title Loss To Unicoi

BLOUNTVILLE – The South Greene girls struggled to get shots to fall on Monday night and fell to Unicoi County 41-36 in the District 1-2A Tournament championship game at West Ridge High School.

“I’m disappointed in a lot of areas,” South Greene coach Stephen Gregg said. “We weathered a storm in the first half with our two leading scorers on the bench with two fouls. But we lost our grip late in the fourth quarter with some costly turnovers. It felt like a train wreck there at the end and this one will hurt for a while. Unicoi did what it had to do to fight back. They made the plays when they had to.”

The Lady Rebels are not done and will move on to the Region 1-2A Tournament where they will host Cumberland Gap on Friday at 7 PM. With a win the Lady Rebels will advance to the region semifinals that will be played at Gatlinburg-Pittman.

“We have to learn from the film,” Gregg said. “There isn’t anything I can say to fix it tonight. But we’ll get back after it tomorrow. We know there are teams that aren’t playing and we need to appreciate that. We get one more game at home, but we made out path more difficult.”

Early foul trouble forced South Greene to play much of the first half without its two leading scorers in Kortnei Bailey and Ari Hoese, but still it managed to go into the break leading 18-17.

Scoring did not pick up much in the third quarter, but tough defense allowed the Lady Rebels to stay in front.

South Greene got its first breathing room when Paisley Brobeck knocked down a jumper from the elbow. Then with three minutes left in the period Brobeck grabbed a rebound and set up Neveah Davis for a three pointer that stretched South Greene’s lead to 25-19.

With 1:02 left in the frame Abigail Vidrio got a floater to fall for Unicoi County to close the gap to 25-23.

Early in the fourth quarter the Lady Blue Devils were able to make it a one-point game when Laney Rogers hit from beyond the arc.

Bailey answered by taking a Samantha Birdwell deflection the distance.

With 4:55 left Hoese knocked down a straight-away trey to give the Lady Rebels their biggest lead at 33-26. Bailey kept it a seven-point advantage when she intercepted a pass and took it the other way for a layup.

Over the final 4:18 South Greene only scored one point and watched the Lady Blue Devils turn the tide. For the night South Greene’s starters shot 27 percent from the field, and without Bailey that percentage dropped to 19 percent. At the free-throw line the Lady Rebels went 5-of-13 compared to Unicoi’s 16-of-22.

“We didn’t have a typical shooting night. It just wasn’t good shooting night. Kortnei was more efficient at 6-for-11, but we couldn’t get her in a rhythm because of foul trouble,” Gregg said.

Carly Baxter led the Lady Blue Devils’ comeback effort with seven consecutive points. Her two free throws with 2:10 left knotted things at 35-35.

With 1:04 left Bailey ran through a screen to pick up her fifth foul and Rogers made both free tosses to give Unicoi its first lead of the night at 37-35.

In the final minute South Greene thought it had forced a pivotal turnover with a throw away at midcourt, but the officials ruled that the Lady Rebels tipped the ball. On the ensuing inbound pass Birdwell fouled Brooklyn Sparks and then argued the call to tack on a technical foul.

Sparks made 2-of-4 free throws to make it 39-36 and Unicoi County kept possession with 35 seconds left. South Greene had to foul again and Rogers made both to make it a two-possession game at 41-36.

South Greene could not get another shot to fall.

South Greene controlled Monday’s first quarter from the jump with Hoese knocking down a three-pointer from the corner on the first possession.

Bailey scored six points in the period as South Greene went in front 12-4, but then she picked up her second foul with six seconds on the clock and went to the bench for the rest of the half.

The second quarter began with South Greene leading 12-5.