Points were at a premium on Thursday evening at the Huskies Den as tough and aggressive defense stole the show in a cross-county matchup between North Greene and Chuckey-Doak.
The game stayed close the whole way, but the Lady Huskies locked down on defense in the final minutes to hold off Chuckey-Doak for a 38-36 win that keeps them unbeaten on the young season.
“Chuckey-Doak is a very physical team, every player that steps on the floor plays extremely hard, and we had to challenge our kids,” North Greene coach James Buchanan said. “I was curious to see if we could play at that level of physicality, and it was ugly at times, but we got the job done. I think we learned some things from this game. We went into the locker room after the game with cuts and bruises, but these girls never backed down. That’s what I’m most pleased with, we never backed down.”
The game went to fourth quarter tied at 29-29 but the Lady Huskies quickly took the lead when Kaydence Marshall slipped a pass inside to Hannah Miller for a lay in.
Ella Head followed with a three-pointer for the Lady Huskies and then Miller made a free throw for a 35-29 North Greene lead with 4:57 left to play.
Chuckey-Doak’s Isabell Karricker got her side going with a jumper from the top of the key and then a short jump shot from the block as Tavyn Southerland pushed the pace in transition. That closed the gap to 35-33, but then Head gave North Greene a cushion again with another triple.
Defensively North Greene closed off the lane over the final three minutes and kept the Lady Knights from getting anything easy. The Lady Knights only managed a three-pointer from Kennedy Brown, but despite getting the defensive stops it needed Chuckey-Doak’s offense could not get the tying shot to fall.
“We just challenged our kids to be better,” Buchanan said. “They would pull Hannah out to the perimeter and we were giving easy stuff behind her. I just told them we have to be better behind her. She has cleaned up so much stuff behind them for four years now, it was their turn to return the favor. I think they took that serious there at the end, and we didn’t give up another field after that.”
In the first quarter neither offense could find its footing as Miller shut down the lane for North Greene, and Chuckey-Doak’s guards kept the Lady Huskies out rhythm on the other end of the floor.
The Lady Black Knights found themselves quickly in the bonus and went 7-of-8 at the free-throw line in the first quarter. With 1:07 left in the period Karricker put one off the glass to put Chuckey-Doak on top 10-9, but North Greene’s Loren Blevins closed the quarter with a triple for a 12-10 Lady Huskies’ lead.
Just like she finished the first quarter Blevins started the second-quarter scoring when she took an inbound pass from Mercy Buchanan and fired in a triple.
A layup by Karricker closed the gap to 15-14, but North Greene was able to take a 23-16 lead into halftime.
In the third quarter Chuckey-Doak started the period on 9-0 run as their defensive pressure for the length of the floor shut down the Lady Huskies.
Tralyn Southerland got the scoring started with a three-pointer set up by an offensive rebound by Tavyn Southerland. Saniah Atchison also knocked down a step-back triple during the run as the lead flipped to 25-23.
Free throws kept the Lady Knights in front for much of the quarter, but with four seconds left in the period Marshall hit from deep for the Lady Huskies to even the score at 29-29.
Miller and Head each scored 12 points on Thursday for North Greene. Brown led Chuckey-Doak with 14 points.
