It took much of the first quarter for the Greeneville girls basketball team to get rolling, but once things started clicking there was little David Crockett could do to slow down the Lady Greene Devils in the quarterfinals of the Region 1-3A Tournament.
After trailing at the end of the first quarter the Lady Devils ran away from the Lady Pioneers over the final 24 minutes on the way to a 90-57 win on Friday night at Hal Henard Gymnasium.
“We were a little tight in the first quarter, and it took us a little while to get going. But once we got rolling we rolled right on,” Greeneville coach Annette Watts said.
It was Greeneville’s highest scoring output of the season and best offensive performance since scoring 98 points against Unicoi County on February 25, 2022.
The Lady Devils will hope to keep filling up the net going forward in the postseason, but Watts knows slowing the other offense is even more important heading into March.
Greeneville now moves on to the Region 1-3A semifinals and will face Elizabethton on Monday at 7:30 PM at Grainger High School. Elizabethton beat Grainger 50-41 in its quarterfinal contest.
“The point production is huge. We can’t let teams guard one or two of us, we have to have everyone contributing at this point in the season,” Watts said. “We have to keep playing Greeneville basketball from the tip. Our offense will come, we can score the ball. But to keep moving on we have to control teams defensively.”
The Lady Devils big offensive outing was highlighted by Jordan Swatzell who rained down nine three-pointers and scored 29 points. The nine three-pointers tie a Lady Devils’ single-game record.
“This is time do that. We’re in the final stretch and this is when you want those kinds of performances,” Watts said. “I kept telling her to shoot the ball when they’re not guarding you. She took her time and put them in. Brylee was driving one way just to throw back to her. This team isn’t selfish and they will find whoever is open.”
Brylee Tullock had a triple-double for Greeneville with 20 points, 13 assists, and 10 rebounds. Maria Lyde scored 22 points and Julia Woolsey added 13 points for the Lady Greene Devils.
Greeneville started Friday by jumping in front 7-2, but then things began to become stagnant as David Crockett swung the advantage to 10-7. That led to Watts pulling all five starters from the floor and delivering a stern wake-up call.
“We weren’t moving. We were trying to stand up and guard them, and if you stand up against (Kayleah Doner) she licks her chops and goes,” Watts said. “We weren’t boxing out, we weren’t rebounding and we weren’t moving offensively. We just needed to sit back down and watch for a little bit, and they went back out and got going.”
When she brought the starters back in the Lady Pioneers led 17-9, but immediately Swatzell launched a triple from the corner. Lyde closed the quarter with a jump shot from the top of the key to close the gap to 17-14.
The Lady Devils quickly heated up in the second quarter and inside the first minute flipped the lead when a steal by Swatzell set up Tullock for a transition layup and 18-17 advantage.
The Lady Pioneers hung around through the first four minutes of the quarter and used a layup by Jaidyn Howard to close the gap to 28-23.
Greeneville followed with a 16-2 run going into halftime. Lyde started things by scoring through contact for three points the hard way. Woolsey then quickly set up Tullock for another transition bucket.
With five seconds left Matea Gray found Swatzell for her fourth triple and a 44-25 Greeneville lead.
The third quarter started with Tullock scoring inside, Woolsey sinking a jumper from the top of the key and Swatzell striking from deep again as the lead reached 51-25.
Crockett got three points from Kayleah Doner, but Greeneville’s lead moved to 58-28 when Gray pulled up for an elbow jumper.
Over the final two minutes of the third quarter the teams traded buckets, but Greeneville held a 70-40 lead.
In the fourth quarter Tullock scored six more points, and Swatzell knocked down two more triples as Greeneville pulled away to a 90-57 win.
Doner led all scorers on Friday with 32 points.
