MURFREESBORO – The North Greene girls basketball teams’ season came to an end on Wednesday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Class 1A State Tournament.
The Lady Huskies fought to the finish but turnovers and trips to the free-throw line proved to be the difference as Greenfield advanced with a 44-39 win.
“These kids fought hard, but we fell a little bit short on making some plays,” North Greene coach James Buchanan said. “It was an evenly matched game, but their kids made more plays down the stretch. It feels like keeping our opponent off the free-throw line has been a plague when we come down here, 22 free throws killed us. But I can’t say enough about this team and especially this senior class. I love this group, it’s a very special group and I hate that it’s over.”
North Greene finishes the season with a program record 31 wins and for the sixth straight season its run ended on the floor of the Murphy Center at Middle Tennessee State University in the state tournament. They had a 16-game win streak at one point, and after the calendar flipped to 2025 the Lady Huskies went 20-2.
“When you talk about the accomplishments of this group its a reflection of their work ethic and their attitude,” Buchanan said. “I say this every year, but we really do have great kids, and great families and a great school. So many things have to go right to get here, but it starts with your heart. If your heart is in the right place and you put others’ needs ahead of your needs, it makes it so much easier to just concentrate on who you play next. That has been the foundation for this group.”
The Lady Huskies found their stroke from behind the arc early and knocked down five three-pointers in the first quarter to take an early lead. Loren Blevins sank two of those triples in the first two minutes to put North Greene on top 6-4. Hannah Miller let a straight-away trey fly to even the score at 9-9.
North Greene then finished the first quarter on an 8-0 run to take a 17-11 lead. Miller and Ella Head sank three-pointers in that stretch.
North Greene’s biggest lead of the day came with 6:27 left in the second quarter when Miller slipped a pass across the paint to Mercy Buchanan for a layup through contact.
On defense Greenfield started to pay more attention to the perimeter and held the Lady Huskies without a point for three minutes. After North Greene started the game 5-for-9 from beyond the arc they shot 2-for-11 from deep over the final three quarters.
The Lady Yellowjackets started chipping away at the lead when Rayanna Fisher knocked down a pair of smooth midrange jumpers. Brenley Little and Jayleigh Bowers then turned a pair of steals into breakaway layups that evened the score at 19-19 with 3:38 left in the first half.
Turnovers proved to be a difference maker on Wednesday as North Greene gave the ball away 18 times. For most of the contest Buchanan’s defensive plan worked, but the extra possessions they gave Greenfield proved to be too much to overcome.
“They got after us pretty hard coming up the floor after made baskets, and even after rebounds, and the ball started to get free,” Buchanan said. “Looking at the stats 18 turnovers is a difference. We got loose with the ball, and in the second half that meant we couldn’t really get into our offense.”
Over the final three minutes of the first half there were five lead changes with the Lady Huskies on the positive end of the last one. North Greene held the ball for the final 45 seconds and with three ticks left Ella Head drove down the right side of the lane for a lay in that put the Lady Huskies up 25-24 at intermission.
North Greene’s last lead of the contest came with 5:50 left in the third quarter when Miller found Buchanan cutting down the baseline for a layup that made it 27-26.
Defense then took over on both ends of the floor and no one scored for three minutes. For the Lady Jackets the pressure they were applying eventually led to turnovers and North Greene began to foul on those loose-ball plays.
Greenfield made five trips to the free-throw line in the third quarter and went 8-of-10 on those attempts. The Lady Yellowjackets lone field of the quarter came from Anna Grace Abernathy at the horn to push the lead to 34-29.
Five points from Miller early in the fourth quarter kept North Greene within striking distance at 36-34, but then a four-minute scoring drought stalled the comeback attempt.
With 45 seconds left Blevins put back a miss to close the gap to 38-36, but then Greenfield went 6-of-6 at the foul line in the closing stretch to secure the 44-39 win.
Greenfield only made two field goals in the second half, but they went 16-of-20 at the foul line. For the game the Lady Jackets were 18-of-22 at the stripe compared to North Greene’s 4-of-10 effort.
Miller led North Greene on Wednesday with 13 points and nine rebounds. Blevins finished with 11 points.
Miller and Mercy Buchanan wrap up their time at North Greene as part of a special group that advanced to the state tournament all four years of their high school careers. They wrapped up their time as Lady Huskies with 102 wins. Senior Loren Blevins finished her career with three trips to the state tournament, and senior Kaydence Marshal made it to Murfreesboro in both of her seasons with the Lady Huskies.
“When its over you look back and you reflect and you celebrate what they have done,” coach Buchanan said. “But we never talked about any of that during the season. We’ve always just looked at the next opponent. We’ve never worried about the individual accolades, we haven’t really even focused on the team milestones. This group has been the epitome of a team. They value the group more than they value themselves, and they have concentrated on that common goal.”
Fisher led Greenfield with 12 points, and Little scored 11 points.
