The North Greene boys locked down on defense in the second half to get past West Greene, claiming a 51-45 win on Saturday night.
“West Greene is a good team and we did just enough at home to get a win,” North Greene coach Sam Tarlton said. “I thought we were bad defensively in the first half, and that’s not us. But allowing 15 points in the second half was great. That’s what we have to do to win. We made just enough shots at the end to win. Any time we can get a county win we’ll take it.”
Saturday’s contest went to halftime with North Greene clinging to a narrow 31-30 lead, and early in the third quarter that lead flipped. Just over a minute into second half Conner Campbell knocked down a three-pointer for West Greene to put the Buffaloes in front 33-31.
No one made a shot for over three minutes as both defenses had the upper hand, but With 3:01 left in the period Braden McCamey sank a turnaround jumper from the left block to put the Buffaloes on top 37-33.
With two minutes left in the quarter West Greene was dealt a major blow when Ayden Lamons came down hard after taking contact on a layup. He left the game with an ankle injury and did not return. At that point he was the game’s leading scorer with 15 points.
After Lamons’ exit the Huskies went on a 6-0 run to close the third quarter. With one minute left Tyler Britton slipped a pass to Lance Carrico for a layup that evened the score at 37-37, and with one second on the clock Carrico was fouled. He made both free throws and North Greene went to the final frame leading 39-37.
With 6:21 left to play Campbell put back a miss through contact and made his free toss to put West Greene in front 42-41. That was the last field goal the Buffaloes made as North Greene’s defense proved impenetrable the rest of the way.
On the trip the other way Carrico landed a turnaround jumper and the Huskies played from in front the rest of the night.
Carrico led all scorers with 19 points on Saturday, and his ability to keep West Greene’s defense working was a big reason North Greene was able to win.
“Lance has to be that every night. He and Lawson know that they can’t have an off night. If those two aren’t consistent we can’t win,” Tarlton said.
In the final minute, after West Greene made it a one-point game, Carrico made a layup, and Lawson Davenport was 4-for-4 at the foul line to secure the 51-45 win.
At the start it looked like Saturday’s contest might be a track meet with North Greene claiming a 22-16 lead after the first eight minutes.
The Huskies were strong on the offensive glass in the quarter as they put in nine second-chance points, and Carrico stepped outside to knock down a pair of three-pointers. Lamons scored seven points for West Greene in the frame.
In the second quarter West Greene was able to tie the game at 28-28 when a feed from Lamons to Campbell led to a layup.
Britton answered for North Greene when he set a screen for Lawson Davenport and then took the return pass to bang home a three-pointer.
With five seconds remaining Elijah Williams dropped in a runner as West Greene closed the gap to 31-30.
In addition to Carrico’s 19 points, Davenport scored 14 points for North Greene.
Lamons scored 15 points for West Greene and Campbell had 13.
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