BLOUNTVILLE – The North Greene’s boys basketball team made it back to the District 1-1A Championship game after a defensively dominant 55-21 win over Cloudland on Saturday afternoon at West Ridge High School.
“That’s what we’ve got to do and that’s how we’ve got to win. We’ve got to try to hold the other team low and just do enough offensively,” Head Coach Sam Tarlton mentioned.
After winning last year’s title, the Huskies will look to go back-to-back and defend their crown in Tuesday night’s District Championship against Unaka.
Tarlton spoke about Tuesday saying, “You try to win here late in the year,” he explained. “When you’re playing with house money, just go out there and play hard.”
Saturday afternoon’s contest was another dominant defensive outing for the Huskies. 21 points is the lowest total points allowed by North Greene’s defense this season. They are averaging 37.4 points per game in their last 7 games in the month of February.
Tyler Britton had a great shooting night and led all scorers with 17 points. Havoc Fair joined him in double figures with 10 points.
“It’s good to see some other guy’s kind of score. Tyler Britton has been playing really well and he shot the ball really well tonight. I thought Havoc come in and done some good things,” Tarlton said.
In the first quarter the Cloudland Highlanders were close to getting shutout with only one point scored that came from the free-throw line. Lance Carrico started the game with four-straight from the paint and foul stripe before Cloudland’s lone free throw.
The Huskies finished the quarter on a 12-0 run that stretched all the way to an 18-0 run into the second. Thomas Darnell scored two from the charity stripe before Carrico and Britton traded three-pointers. Isaac Gaby was a perfect 2-of-2 from the line next. Darnell ended the quarter with a layup and North Greene led 16-1.
The run continued with Darnell shooting 3-of-4 from the free-throw line. Britton ended the run with another three-pointer. After Cloudland ended the run, Lawson Davenport went up high for a rim-scraping flush. Britton and Davenport scored four in-a-row on back-to-back transition buckets. Davenport again added two points with a buzzer-beating mid-range jumper.
The Huskies’ suffocating defense led Cloudland 30-4 at halftime.
Tyler Britton came out hot in the third quarter and scored nine-straight points. He began with a post fadeaway followed by a layup and a three-point bomb. He finished at the free-throw line with a pair of foul shots. The Highlanders played competitive the rest of the quarter and outscored the Huskies 10-7. North Greene walked into the fourth with a 46-14 lead.
In the fourth Havoc Fair scored five and Matthew Boyd scored four for North Greene.
The Huskies exited the court with a 55-21 victory to walk into Tuesday night’s District 1-1A Championship. They will take the court Tuesday at 7:30 against Unaka.
“I thought they handled business. At this time of year it’s just survive and advance,” Coach Tarlton mentioned.
Tyler Britton scored a game-high 17 points with Havoc Fair adding 10. Eight players scored in the win.
GIRLS
NORTH GREENE 49, UNIVERSITY HIGH 14
The North Greene Lady Huskies took care of business on Saturday at noon and defeated University High 49-14 in the District 1-1A semifinals to advance to their 8th-straight District Championship Game.
Once again, the Lady Huskies defense held their opponents to less than 20 points. They’ve held opposing offenses to less than 20 in five of their last nine contests. “I thought defensively we were pretty good all day. I think we gave up eight in the first half and six in the second half,” Head Coach James Buchanan expressed.
The scoring was slow to start, but picked up in the third quarter. Hannah Miller led all scorers with 14 points and seven different North Greene players scored.
The win sends North Greene to their 8th-straight District Title game. They will face off with Unaka on Monday night at 7:30. They’re in search of their first championship since the 2021-22 season.
Before knowing his competition, Buchanan spoke about Monday night and said, “Now we move into Monday night. It’ll be tough whoever it is. Unaka and Cloudland both pose some big problems.”
It was a slow beginning for both teams, but North Greene reached out to an 8-0 lead before University got on the board. Mercy Buchanan scored the first points with a layup and Loren Blevins drained a three-pointer next. A few minutes later Ella Head made a three-point basket. Lemy Ortiz scored the Lady Bucs first two.
The Lady Huskies finished the first with a 6-2 run courtesy of four points from Josie Graham and two from Buchanan. They led 14-4 after the first.
The second started with a steal by Blevins that led to an assist to Cadie McDevitt. Hannah Miller stayed quiet during the first but started her scoring with a layup underneath. The Lady Huskies ended the half on a 7-0 run. Head and McDevitt combined for three free throws and Miller laid in another pair of layups.
North Greene led University 25-8 at the half.
That 7-0 run to end the second quarter became a 24-0 run deep into the third. Hannah Miller’s post layup began the half and was followed by a four-point run from Kaydence Marshall. She started with a free throw then drained a triple. Miller got fouled twice and went a perfect 4-of-4 from the line. The next run came from Blevins with five-straight. A three-pointer was followed by a baseline floater the next trip down the floor. The final bucket came on Miller’s post layup.
“I’m proud of my kids today. I thought they got into more of a rhythm in the second half. I think at one point in the third quarter we were on a 17-0 run and we didn’t even call nothing. Didn’t call a play, didn’t call nothing. We just let them come play just the way we’ve been trying to teach them how to play. You can tell we had four seniors and a junior out there, they just looked good and looked comfortable,” Buchanan said.
Emma Chandley’s long two-pointer ended the run. University went on a 6-2 run next with buckets from Chandley, and both Vania & Lemy Ortiz.
Josie Graham made an inbounds layup right before the buzzer sounded to lift North Greene ahead 46-14 going into the fourth.
Mercy Buchanan knocked down a three whilst being knocked down that served as the only points of the fourth.
North Greene walked off the court with a 49-14 win to move into Monday night’s District 1-1A Championship. They play Unaka at 7:30.
Hannah Miller led the way with 14 points. Loren Blevins scored 8, Mercy Buchanan had 7, and both Josie Graham & Ella Head provided 6.
“It was pretty well-balanced. They just took what was there. Nobody was playing selfish and not forcing much. That’s the way we like to play. Anybody can hurt you on any day,” Coach Buchanan left off with.
