BRISTOL – The Greeneville boys basketball team had to fight, scrap and claw for everything it got on Tuesday night at Viking Hall in the Region 1-3A Tournament semifinals, but after a four-quarter battle with home standing Tennessee High the Greene Devils prevailed 74-61.
“This was a really, really tough game,” Greeneville coach Brad Woolsey said. “It was a competitive game, and we knew there was going to be adversity. Generally, the team that handles adversity best is going to win. I won’t say we handled it better than them, but we handled it pretty well. Our guys did a great job of battling through a physical, up-and-down, back-and-forth game. I’m just thankful that we made to the next step.”
With the win the Greene Devils avenge a loss in the same game a year ago to the Vikings, and they return to the region championship game for the first time since 2022. The win also sends Greeneville to the state sectionals on Monday. The Devils will be back in action in Bristol on Thursday against Unicoi County for the region title.
“We’re playing against the team that put us out last year at their place. It’s not that we were out for revenge, but there is a different level to it and you want to be the one left standing,” Woolsey said. “I think our guys were pretty fired up, and they have been locked in at practice the past few days. I could not ask for more from these guys.”
In the closing minutes of the third quarter on Tuesday Tennessee closed the gap and stole the momentum, but Greeneville still held a 51-46 lead.
In the fourth quarter Greeneville focused on getting the ball in the hands of Mr. Basketball finalist Trey Thompson and letting go to work. The Vikings’ game plan to defend Thompson on Tuesday simply involved fouling him every moment he was inside the three-point arc and seeing how many of those fouls the officials would let them get away with.
“We felt like the best thing to do was to let Trey play outside. We got him the ball on the perimeter, and these physical guys struggled to guard him with the ball,” Woolsey said. “(Colin) Brown for them shot 20 free throws, and Trey is taking more contact. But he gets 20 free throws because he has the ball in his hand. So we knew we had to put the ball in Trey’s hands and let him do what he does.”
On the first possession of the final period Thompson eschewed the physicality and charged down the left side of the lane before elevating over the Vikings for a thunderous slam. After a stop on defense Thompson followed with a step-back triple that put Greeneville up 56-46, and at the same time brought the Greene Devils faithful to their feet while silencing the home crowd.
“Emotion is such a big part of the postseason,” Woolsey said. “I was excited to see the people we had here, because we had three other teams playing tonight with spring sports starting. We had great support and they probably don’t know what that means to us. When big plays happen it amps everybody up, and that was a factor tonight.”
Tennessee’s Colin Brown kept his side in it with a pair of layups, but Thompson went inside twice more and converted both times with Vikings draped across his back. He then passed off the block to Cole Smith for a three-pointer before a steal by Thompson in the backcourt turned into another rim-rattling slam that pushed Greeneville’s lead 66-50 with 3:20 left to play.
From that point Greeneville was content with slowing the game down instead of trying to score. That allowed Tennessee to close the gap, but the lead was never in question as the Devils held on for the 74-61 win.
Thompson finished the night with 34 points, and 16 of them came in the fourth quarter. The junior also passed Mr. Basketball winner JaKobi Gillespie as the program’s all-time leading scorer with 2,132 career points.
“Trey just does what he does,” Woolsey said. “I feel like he has grown his game this year. His ability to put the ball on the floor has really been a game changer, and it’s made him much harder to guard. He has worked on his body and athleticism and grown into a really good player.”
Tuesday’s action started with the team’s trading buckets to a 9-9 tie, but then the Greene Devils got hot from behind the arc and went on a 15-2 run. In the stretch Cole Franklin, Zaydyn Anderson and Smith all hit from behind the arc while Thompson scored six points to put Greeneville on top 24-11.
Brown scored the final four points of the period with three trips to the foul line to cut the lead down to 24-15.
Brown led Tennessee on Tuesday with 34 points while going 14-of-20 at the free-throw line.
Because 50 combined fouls were called the Devils had to mix up the rotation all night, but Woolsey got a determined effort from everyone he put on the floor.
“We had to go to our bench tonight, and so many guys stepped up. In that first quarter four guys hit a three and none of them were Trey. That has been the growth of our team, the fact that other guys can step up and make plays. That has been a joy for me to see,” Woolsey said.
The second period started with Greeneville’s Franklin hitting from deep and then Isaac McGill taking a steal the other way for a fast-break layup that pushed the lead to 29-15. The rest of the quarter was spent trading shots before a triple by Tennessee’s Zander Phillips narrowed the margin to 39-29.
In the third quarter the Vikings fought back and with 1:43 left Brown made a pair of free throws that cut Greeneville’s lead down to 44-40. That was as close as the Vikings got after the three-minute mark of the first quarter.
In addition to 34 points from Thompson Greeneville got 11 points from Franklin and 10 from Anderson.
For Tennessee Reed Miller was also in double figures with 13 points.
