KNOXVILLE – Greeneville struggled to get its offense going on Saturday night at Webb School of Knoxville in the Turnkey Classic, and fell to Hardin Valley 62-55.
“It felt like tonight every time we got a stop we needed we turned the ball over. We weren’t great at executing on offense,” Greeneville coach Brad Woolsey said. “We had situations where guys were taking quick shots, and situations where guys weren’t taking the shots that were there. Those are things we have to get fixed. We have to learn the value of the ball, that’s the big thing we have to take away.”
The Greene Devils scored nearly 30 percent of their points in the final two minutes, but they did find a little hope late after falling behind by 15 points.
The fourth quarter began with Hardin Valley leading 44-33, but post defenders Barron Sheetz and Will Fellers quickly fouled out which opened up space for Greeneville’s Trey Thompson.
Still Greeneville found itself trailing 54-39 with 2:08 left to play. On the trip the other way Thompson rose up and nailed a three-pointer from the right wing. Over the final 1:59 of play Thompson exploded for 12 points, including two three-pointers and a powerful jam.
“I look up in the fourth quarter and I’m wondering if we are going to get of the 30s. It felt like we got stuck there. But Trey started scoring it and making some plays. I would have liked to have seen even more of that aggressiveness,” Woolsey said.
Thompson did have a steal in the closing stretch and the Devils forced a five-second call, but they had to rely on fouling during their comeback run to get the ball back. The Hawks made the most of those opportunities and went 8-for-8 at the charity stripe in the final two minutes. That kept Greeneville from challenging the lead, but the Devils were able to take eight points of their deficit in the final two minutes.
Thompson led all scorers on Saturday with 31 points, 16 of them came in the fourth quarter.
Saturday’s action started with the Greene Devils scoring the first seven points. Isaac McGill started with a driving layup and then hit a triple from the left wing.
From that point on Greeneville struggled to find a rhythm on offense as the Hawks’ pressure led to turnovers, and when shots did go up they seemed to clang off the iron.
With 2:49 left in the opening period Ben Brophy came off a screen and nailed a three-pointer to tie things at 12-12. On the Hawks’ next possession an air ball from Sheetz fell into Fellers’ hands for a layup and Hardin Valley closed the first quarter leading 16-13.
In the first minute of the second quarter Hardin Valley’s lead grew to 20-13. After that the Devils gave themselves a chance with defense and only allowed four points over the final seven minutes of the first half.
The problem for the Devils is that they could not get shots to fall on their end of the floor and only managed to score eight points in the quarter. With 1:15 left Zaydyn Anderson drove the lane to close the gap to 22-21, but the Hawks took a 24-21 lead into halftime.
The third quarter began with Jhervius Moore grabbing an offensive rebound that set up Thopson for a layup that closed the gap to 24-23.
Hardin Valley then scored the next 14 points to take a commanding 38-23 lead. Fellers scored eight of those points as part of his 14-point night.
Two three-pointers by Thompson brought Greeneville back to with nine points at 42-33, but Hardin Valley went to the fourth quarter leading 44-33.
Brophy led Hardin Valley with 20 points and Sheetz scored 10 points. Anderson and McGill each scored nine points for Greeneville.
