The Greeneville girls built a big lead early on Friday night and it was too much for Unicoi County to overcome as the Lady Greene Devils collected a 62-43 win in the Region 1-3A Tournament Quarterfinals.
“It was a great start, but Unicoi made a great adjustment in the second quarter. At this time of year we have to play with urgency for 32 minutes,” Greeneville coach Annette Watts said. “I thought we got better in the second half, but you have to be locked in for four quarter this time of year.”
The Lady Greene Devils move on to play Tennessee High on Monday at 7:30 in Bristol in the Tournament’s semifinals. Tennessee High beat Volunteer 75-35 on Friday night.
Friday’s action started with Greeneville’s defensive pressure stifling the Lady Blue Devils. They scored the first 12 points and Unicoi County looked completely lost. Maria Lyde started the scoring with a powerful put back. Kyla Jobe drove to the hoop, and after good ball rotation Abby Adkins knocked down a jumper from the top of the key.
After a steal by Jobe Matea Gray got in front of the defense to score on a fast break, and Adkins capped the run by taking a pass across the lane from Jobe and finishing with a layup.
Abigail Vidrio got Unicoi on the board with a three-pointer, but Greeneville’s Julia Woolsey answered with five points and the Lady Greene Devils took a 19-3 lead into the second quarter.
Lyde got the second quarter started with back-to-back buckets for Greeneville and the lead moved to 25-4 when Woolsey made two at the charity stripe.
From that point the Lady Blue Devils started doing a better job at moving the ball around Greeneville’s defense and began to put a dent in the lead.
Brooklyn Sparks scored three points the old-fashioned way and Laney Rogers connected from behind the arc to narrow the margin to 29-14.
Vidrio scored the final four points of the first half to cut Greeneville’s lead to 31-18.
The third quarter was played even on the scoreboard as Greeneville’s lead ticked upward to 44-29. Adkins scored five points in the period for Greeneville while Unicoi got triples from Sparks and Rogers.
In the fourth quarter Lyde got going again for Greeneville after being without a field goal in the third quarter. She scored six points in the period, and with 3:05 left she scored through contact to push the Lady Devils lead to 57-37.
Late in the period Allison Hayes gave Greeneville its biggest lead of the night at 62-40 when she knocked down a three-pointer. The Lady Devils went on to win 62-43.
Lyde led Greeneville on Friday with 20 points. Abby Adkins had 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Woolsey scored 12 points. Jobe finished with 10 points, five rebounds and five assists. After the game Jobe was honored for grabbing her 500th career rebound on Monday against Grainger in the District 2-3A championship game.
“1,000 points and 500 rebounds for a softball player is pretty impressive,” Watts said. “Kyla is just a dynamic athlete.”
For Unicoi County Haley Rush, Sparks and Vidrio all scored 11 points.
