BRISTOL – The good news for the Greeneville Greene Devils basketball team was, they were the opening act for The Classic, a nationally acclaimed basketball tournament played each year at Viking Hall in Bristol Tennessee. The bad news was they had to play the defending Class 3A state champion Upperman Bee’s from Baxter Tennessee, the team that ended their season a year ago in the state semifinals.
The Devils put up a good fight but eventually fall to the Bee’s 74-60.
Greeneville falls to 0-12 on the season.
The Bee’s brought back reigning Class 3A Mr. Basketball in junior Ty Cobb, a recent commit to Liberty University, and he poured in 48 points in the win.
Cobb got the scoring underway with a layup and Greeneville’s Yordan Mills was equal to the task with a floater in the lane. Cobb then knocked down a triple from the elbow and Mills found Zy Neal under the goal for the bucket. With the Devils down 7-4 but Neal, only a freshman, forced Cobb into a turnover and Taren Clairdy drilled a triple from the key to tie the score at 7-7.
At the five-minute mark Mills was once again directing traffic found Claridy underneath for the bucket and the Devils were up 9-7.
The Bee’s didn’t get rattled and Cobb took over the game at that point. Cobb scored on five of the next six possessions for the Bee’s, the one possession he didn’t score on, he got the assist. Cobb finished the first quarter with 16 points, but more importantly helping his team to go on a 15-0 run to finish the first quarter with a 22-9 lead.
Greeneville head coach Brad Woolsey later said, “That last four or five minutes of the first quarter was definitely the difference in the game and that really told the story. We went down and just couldn’t get back.”
In the second quarter William Woolsey got the the Devils back on the scoreboard with a triple from the top of the key. Parker Quillen came off the bench to give the Devils the spark that they needed with a triple from the elbow at the 5:15 mark of the second quarter, then less than 30 seconds later he drilled a trey from the corner. But Cobb was good from around the free throw line and followed with a catch and release triple for the elbow.
Neal was good from in front then followed that with a pair from the line to draw the Devils within seven at 29-22 with 3:10 to go in the half. Cobb hit a pair form the line, but Clairdy drilled a three-pointer from the top of key to cut the lead to six at 31-25 with less than two and a half minutes remaining in the first half.
Cobb drove the lane for an eight-point lead late in the quarter before Neal picked Cobb’s pocket and found Woolsey on the baseline for a floater to keep the Devils in striking distance at the half with a score of 35-28.
Cobb kept his one-man-show going to start the third quarter but Mills and Clairdy were equal to the task scoring on back-to-back possessions. Neal was good from down low through contact, he made the free throw to complete the old fashion three-point play. Quillen dropped a triple from the elbow, and the Devils were back to within six at 46-40 with just over three minutes left in the third period.
Cobb hit a pair of free throws on consecutive possessions and capped off the quarter with a triple to extend the Bee’s lead to 57-45 going into the fourth quarter.
The Devils put up the good fight but could never get closer and the Bee’s would make 9-of-9 free throws down the stretch and pull away to a 74-60 win.
Neal led the Devils in scoring with 18 points followed by Quillen with 12. Cobb was nearly perfect in shooting on the night, going 16-of-18 from the floor, including four three-pointers, 12-for-12 from the line for a game high 48 points.
GREENEVILLE – Neal 18, Quillen 12, Clairdy 9, Woolsey 8, Kidwell 7, Mills 6
UPPERMAN – Cobb 48, Johnson 14, Maynard 7, Torrence 5
