RUTLEDGE – The Greeneville boys basketball team found itself in a hole early on Thursday night and never could dig out of it, falling to Tennessee High 77-54 in the Region 1-3A championship game at Grainger High School.
“Tennessee High played great tonight, kudos to them, they had guys really step up,” Greeneville coach Brad Woolsey said. “The zone really bothered us. We weren’t getting stops, and because of that we couldn’t get out and run. That slowed us down, and got us out of rhythm. Then we missed shots, and this time of year against good teams you have to make shots.”
The Greene Devils are not done and will be back in action on Monday in the Class 3A State Sectionals. They will have to travel to Region 2-3A champion Fulton with a state tournament berth on the line. Fulton beat Clinton 59-57 in its region title game.
“It’s going to be tough. Fulton is a tough place to play and coach (Jody) Wright does a great job,” Woolsey said. “But we’re going to get ourselves ready to go. One thing I bet we won’t see is a zone. They will be up in us and guard us tough. But we we’ll ready to go on Monday night.”
Thursday’s action started with Tennessee High sinking into a zone defense and the Greene Devils did not react well to it. They never seemed to be able to figure how to get looks inside early and threw up a lot of three-pointers. Greeneville only connected on one of those long shots in the first quarter, a Braylen Kidwell attempt from the corner.
“We have to attack different,” Woolsey said. “We did a better job in the second half, but it takes time to do it and the pressure had built by that point. You have to get the ball to the elbow and attack downhill. But even when we got in the right position, we missed or our shot got blocked. We can’t shoot that many threes, that’s on me we have to be better prepared to handle that.”
The Greene Devils did play Thursday’s contest without leading scorer Yordan Mills who was absent due to illness.
On the other end of the floor of the Vikings were efficient with their approach. They took the lead on an elbow jumper by Russell Blevins and never trailed on Thursday. Braden Howard went on to score six points in opening period and Reed Miller added four points as Tennessee closed the opening frame leading 16-3.
Greeneville tried to use aggressive defense to spark its offense at the start of the second quarter, and Kidwell was able to take a steal the distance for a breakaway layup.
By the midway point in the period Tennessee got a corner three from Austin Thomas and three points the old-fashioned way from Caiden Terry in quick succession to stretch the lead to 29-9.
Three-pointers by Taren Claridy and Zy Neal kept the Vikings from getting too far away. Claridy was then able to make good on an and-one opportunity to cut Tennessee’ lead to 39-20 at halftime.
The Vikings did not slow down in the second half and started the third quarter on a 13-3 run. Terry got inside for seven points while Howard knocked down a pair of mid-range jumpers for a 52-23 lead.
Neal broke the streak with a three-pointer from the left wing for the Devils.
The fourth quarter began with Tennessee leading 59-32.
While the game was out of reach Greeneville never quit fighting in the fourth quarter. Woolsey is hopeful that some of the late game scenarios his squad was able to work on will benefit them as they move forward.
“We need to take two things away from the late stretch,” Woolsey said. “Number one is we are not going to lay down. We are going to keep fighting and we are going to try to get better. Number two you are also working on situations we may need Monday night. Hopefully some of those things we executed against their starters at the end payoff for us.”
Seven different Greeneville players scored in the final period. Claridy, Parker Quillen and Ryan Jobe all hit from beyond the arc. Neal, Kidwell, William Woolsey and Amir Knight all produced in the paint.
Claridy led Greeneville with 17 points, and Neal finished the night with 11 points.
For Tennessee Terry led the way with 23 points, Thomas had 16 and Howard 15.
