ERWIN – The West Greene boys got started fast on Tuesday evening and they never let up on the way to a 66-24 win over Chuckey-Doak in the opening round of the District 1-2A Tournament at Unicoi County High School.
“Overall, I’m pretty pleased with the performance, we played well as a unit,” West Greene coach Allen Tolliver said. “We shot the ball early, and we had a great first quarter. I’m proud of these guys, and I’m proud of the effort. And all eight guys got to score tonight, so that’s always a good thing.”
With the win West Greene advances to the tournament’s semifinals and clinches a spot in the Region 1-2A Tournament. The Buffaloes will play No.1 seed Hampton on Friday at 8:00 p.m. With the loss Chuckey-Doak’s season comes to an end.
“We knew this was a one-game season, and these guys weren’t ready to be done,” Tolliver said. “We have focused on our goals and expectations, and those guys really bought into those tonight. Hampton is going to be a test. We know they are going to pressure us and shoot the ball well. We have to be ready for them and what they do, and if we can execute the game plan we will have a chance on Friday.”
The Buffaloes came out firing on Tuesday and knocked down five three-pointers in the first quarter. That started with Ayden Lamons sinking a trailing triple for the game’s first points. Chuckey-Doak’s Ben Palazzo knocked down a jumper from the elbow with 6:14 left in the first quarter, and that was the only shot the Black Knights landed in the opening period.
For West Greene Elijah Williams and Braden McCamey followed with triples to stretch the lead to 11-2. In the final 1:16 of the period Sam Wisecarver drained a trey from the corner, Conner Campbell jumped a pass and took it the other way for a layup, and just before the buzzer McCamey dropped in a straight-away trey for a 27-2 lead.
“The way we started shooting, my assistant leaned over and asked what I did to them today. I don’t know what it was, but we are going to do it again on Friday. For this to be a gym it felt really good to see them come in and shoot the ball like that,” Tolliver said.
The Black Knights found a brief spurt of offense to start the second quarter and a step-back three-pointer by Ryland Grindstaff broke a seven-minute scoring drought. The Knights closed the gap to 22-9, but Wisecarver got West Greene going after a long possession found him open from beyond the elbow for three-points.
Over the final 4:14 of the first half McCamey knocked down a pair of three-pointers and Lamons scored six points in the paint as the Buffs took a 37-13 lead into halftime.
Campbell started the second half with a floater from the baseline and then he took a feed from across the paint from Lamons to stretch the lead to 41-13.
Lamons then scored from the paint twice and the Wisecarver drove the baseline for a lay in that stretched the lead to 47-15. By the midway point of the third period Tolliver inserted his short bench and they finished out the contests final 12 minutes.
At the buzzer McCamey sank a leaning triple to stretch the lead to 54-17. McCamey knocked down a three-pointer in the final seconds of each of the first three quarters and he led all scorers on Tuesday with 18 points.
“Braden made all three of those buzzer beaters,” Tolliver said. “After he made the first two he said to me ‘coach are you going to let me shoot the third’. When we got that chance in the third quarter he was just smiling. On that one he was coming off a screen and was cockeyed, it was a hard shot. He has worked hard at perfecting his shot. He’s probably his biggest critic, but it takes that to be great.”
In the fourth quarter Tytus Shelton got inside for six points for West Greene while Luck Heck scored four points for the Buffaloes as they finished the night leading 66-24.
Lamons was also in double figures on Tuesday with 13 points. Grindstaff led Chuckey-Doak with nine points and Dom Atchison scored seven points.
