The Greeneville girls basketball team wrapped up the regular season on Tuesday night by taking down Dobyns-Bennett 76-67.
Despite winning Greeneville coach Annette Watts would have liked a more focused performance display from her team heading into the postseason.
“We have practiced like nothing for two days. And I hate senior night, number one because I’m losing kids, but also they just can’t play and focus. If (Dobyns-Bennett) wasn’t starting its tournament tomorrow, and been able to play the starters more, we would have been beat,” Watts said. “We just have to go back to work tomorrow, and try to get ready to beat a team for a third time on Thursday. I hope this was a wakeup call.”
Greeneville now turns its attention to the postseason and will begin District 2-3A Tournament action on Thursday against Volunteer at Grainger High School.
“I’m ready for a postseason run,” Watts said. “They have to decide what they want to do. We can play like we played tonight and we’ll be done in a hurry. Or we can do those things that we have worked on all year long and try to make a run out of this thing.”
Tuesday’s action started with the teams trading points until the midway point of the first quarter when Dobyns-Bennett separated first. Sally McReynolds knocked down a three-pointer from the wing and Carlee Cradic followed with a transition layup that put the Lady Indians in front 13-8.
On the other end of the floor Greeneville’s Brylee Tullock quickly answered with a put-back bucket. With 50 seconds left she scored on another offensive rebound to even things at 15-15.
With 36 seconds on the clock Dobyns-Bennett was issued a technical foul for entering a player not listed in the scorebook. Julia Woolsey made both technical free throws and it turned into five-point possession when Matea Gray sank a triple. That sent Greeneville into the second quarter leading 20-18.
The Lady Greene Devils scored the first eight points of the second quarter to go in front 28-18. In that opening stretch Greeneville turned up the pressure on defense and Gray and Woolsey were able to turn steals into breakaway layups.
The Lady Indians fought back and a triple by Reese Hasleton closed the gap to 28-25.
Good ball movement left Tullock open for a three-pointer, and the lead reached double digits again at 38-26 when Jordan Swatzell was fouled beyond the arc and she sank a trio of free tosses.
The Lady Devils took a 40-28 lead into halftime.
Maria Lyde scored the first four points of the second half to give Greeneville its biggest lead of the night at 44-28.
Lyde was a force in the paint all night on Tuesday and finished with a career best 33 points to go with six steals, five rebounds and two blocks.
“Maria just went and got points. She scored on some put backs, and she was going to basket hard which got her to the free throw line,” Watts said.
Dobyns-Bennett was able to close the gap again and after one three-pointer from Cradic and two triples from Mary Kate Lively Greeneville’s lead was down to 46-43.
Greeneville’s defense then propelled the offense to rebuild the lead again. A steal by Woolsey set up Lyde for a transition layup, and then a steal by Tullock set up Woolsey for a 52-45 lead.
Then with 1.9 seconds on the clock the Lady Indians fouled Lyde going to the hoop. She converted the layup and the free throw for a 60-48 Greeneville lead.
The fourth quarter was spent with Greeneville going inside and Dobyns-Bennett scoring from the outside. All 16 points the Lady Devils scored in the final frame came in the paint with Lyde accounting for eight of those.
On the other end of the floor Dobyns-Bennett landed five three-pointers from five different players.
In addition to Lyde’s 33 points Greeneville got 17 points, seven rebounds, four assists and four steals from Woolsey. Tullock finished with 14 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
Dobyns-Bennett had 10 different players score on Tuesday with Haselton leading the way with 10 points.
After the game the Lady Devils recognized their four seniors, Gray, Swatzell, Tullock and Emma Shelton.
