West Greene traveled to Unicoi County on Thursday night looking to keep pace with the league-leading Blue Devils. After falling behind early, it appeared it might be a long night for the Buffaloes, but West Greene battled back to tie the game late before suffering a narrow 58-56 loss.
Despite the second consecutive nail-biter—and limited practice time due to snow and ice that disrupted TSSAA athletics—head coach Allen Tolliver took positives from the performance.
“I thought we stepped up and guarded the ball well, not giving up the straight-line drive like we did against Chuckey Doak and forcing them to settle for tough jumpers,” Tolliver said. “Coming in here and losing by two to a team that’s beating opponents by an average of 26.5 points isn’t what we wanted, but it was a definite improvement from the last time we played them.”
West Greene stayed within striking distance throughout much of the first quarter, trailing just 11-8 with 1:47 remaining. That’s when Unicoi County’s career-leading scorer Jackson Simmons took over, scoring the final 10 points of the quarter to give the Blue Devils a 21-8 advantage. Simmons finished with a game-high 32 points.
Carter Stills opened the second quarter with a basket for the Buffaloes, but Unicoi responded with a bucket from AJ Thomas and a free throw by Carter Simmons to extend the lead to its largest margin of the night at 24-10.
West Greene answered with a 10-0 run over the next four minutes, sparked by eight straight points from Parker Arnott and a basket from Elijah Williams, cutting the deficit to 24-20 with 2:15 remaining in the half.
Jackson Simmons hit two free throws and Cade Peterson added a jumper before Tytus Shelton closed the half with a basket, sending the teams to the locker room with Unicoi holding a 28-22 lead.
The Blue Devils opened the third quarter with a jumper from Simmons and a three-pointer by Peterson to push the lead back to 33-22 with 7:16 left. West Greene continued to chip away, however, as Williams scored eight of his team-high 19 points in the period to trim the margin to 42-39 heading into the fourth quarter.
AJ Thomas knocked down two free throws and drilled a deep three to extend Unicoi’s lead to 47-41 with 6:51 remaining. Thomas finished with 18 points, the only other Blue Devil in double figures.
West Greene responded with a strong stretch from Shelton, who scored nine of his 17 points over a three-minute span to cut the deficit to 52-50 with 3:36 left.
After a West Greene timeout, Simmons hit a jumper, but Williams tied the game at 54-54 with 1:34 remaining. Unicoi looked to milk the clock for a high-percentage shot, and Simmons delivered, driving the lane and calmly sinking two free throws with 39 seconds left.
The Buffaloes answered immediately as Shelton scored in the paint to tie the game again at 56-56 with 17 seconds remaining.
Tolliver praised Shelton’s 17-point effort and Williams’ strong return, particularly in the second half. “It’s great to have Elijah back because it’s been almost a month since we saw him,” Tolliver said. “I thought he and Tytus really willed us back into it in the second half.”
Unicoi pushed the ball up the floor, and once again it was Simmons who delivered, knocking down the game-winner with 2.2 seconds remaining. Following a quick timeout, a desperation attempt by Williams missed at the buzzer.
“We knew who was going to shoot it, and so did everybody else in the gym,” Tolliver said. “There was no timeout to prepare for it, and he made a tough shot. I thought Carter contested it well with high hands—he just knocked it down.”
West Greene will host Johnson County on Tuesday night, with tipoff scheduled for approximately 8:00 p.m.
