CHURCH HILL – The Greeneville boys basketball team ran into a red-hot Volunteer squad on Friday night and could not keep up in a 94-80 loss.
“Our kids really played hard and fought hard. I was really proud of the effort tonight,” Greeneville coach Brad Woolsey said. “We hung with them in the first half, but (Jeremiah) Jones was just an animal tonight physically. We have to do a better job against him the next time around. He was the difference in the game, but they had other guys knock stuff down too.”
The Falcons got a historic performance from big man Jeremiah Jones as he poured in 45 points to set a program record. In addition to that Volunteer hit from beyond the arc seven times, causing a real conundrum for Greeneville’s defense.
“The biggest thing we have to do is do a better job on the boards. If we limit him on the boards this is a different game. There isn’t another solution,” Woolsey said. “If he is getting that many second-chance points we can’t answer that with layups. We just have to keep fighting and find a way to get it done.”
Friday started with Greeneville using the outside shots to play from in front early. A three-pointer from Braylen Kidwell gave Greeneville its first lead at 5-3, and then in a 30-second span Parker Quillen and Yordan Mills each hit from deep for an 11-7 lead.
Taren Claridy landed a pair of triples before Quillen nailed a straight-away trey to give the Devils their biggest lead at 22-17.
In that opening stretch Jones scored 12 points for Volunteer, eight on second-chance opportunities. He made two free throws in the finals seconds of the quarter to cut the lead to 22-19.
Zy Neal started the second quarter with a driving layup for the Devils, but just over a minute into the period Amarian Groves ran the length of the floor to put the Falcons in front 25-24.
Neal scored on a putback to briefly give the lead back to Greeneville, but then the Devils went on a three-minute scoring drought.
With 1:52 left in the first half William Woolsey swung the ball to Quillen on the wing for a three-pointer that tied things at 33-33.
Volunteer scored the next six points, but just before the horn Quillen struck from deep again to close the gap to 39-36.
Things quickly turned in the third quarter and the Flacons scored the first 13 points of the second half. Jones accounted for eight of those while converting two old-fashioned-three-point plays.
Claridy broke the streak by scoring on an inbound play.
Volunteer’s Griffin Head followed by hitting from deep twice while Jones and Lucas Bradshaw each scored four points in the paint to grow the lead to 64-44 with 3:02 still to play in the period.
Greeneville found some life late in the quarter with Kidwell and Claridy each connecting on three-pointers. Kidwell then turned a steal into a floater before dropping in a short jumper that cut the lead to 69-56.
Volunteer went to the fourth quarter leading 71-56.
Greeneville scored 24 points in the fourth quarter, but the Devils could not get enough stop to challenge the lead again.
The Flacons biggest lead was 93-69 with 2:25 left after Jones scored in transition.
By the final buzzer the Devils were able to shrink the margin to 94-80.
Greeneville put four players in double figures on Friday. Kidwell led the way with 19 points, Quillen finished with 18, Clairdy scored 17 and Neal had 13 points.
“Offensively I thought our flow was a lot better. We have been working on that in practice,” Woolsey said. “We have to get ball the moving and I felt like we did that really well in the first half. We saw the ball go down tonight. Parker had been in a little slump, and he shot it really well tonight. That was good to see. We have to continue to see those shots go down.”
In addition to Jones’ 45 points, Griffin scored 19 points for Volunteer.
With the loss Greeneville falls to the No.4 seed in the upcoming District 2-3A Tournament and will play Cherokee on Friday in the opening round at Grainger.
