In a year that many doubted what the North Greene boys basketball team could accomplish all the Huskies have done is figure out what it takes to win.
In recent weeks they have laid claim to both the District 1-1A regular season and tournament championships. They won the Region 1-1A Tournament championship and beat Oliver Springs 64-53 in the Class 1A State Sectionals to stretch their win streak to 22 games. Now the Huskies turn their attention to one more trophy as they travel to Murfreesboro this week for the Class 1A State Tournament.
“I think we have been playing pretty good basketball for a while now. These boys have figured out what it takes to win, and they have won 22 straight,” North Greene coach Sam Tarlton said. “We shot it pretty well early in our sectional game, but we haven’t been very good offensively in the district or region. But we have played tough on defense, and we have done the things we have to do to win. That’s a sign of a good team, you know your identity and you know what you have to do to win. Hopefully we can do it a couple of more times.”
North Greene’s state tournament will begin at 9:30 a.m. Central Time against District 13-1A and Region 7-1A champion Humboldt. The Vikings squeaked into the state tournament after beating Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering 51-49 in its state sectional contest. Humboldt is making its 19th state tournament appearance, the last coming in 2023. The Vikings have won three state championships, the last coming in 2013, and in 2019 they were state runners-up. Former University of Tennessee and NFL Hall of Fame defensive lineman Doug Adkins led Humboldt to the 1949 state championship with a 44-0 record.
Humboldt will bring an up-tempo pace and aggressive defensive style to the Murphy Center on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University on Wednesday. It will be led by a pair of 6’3” guards in senior Kendrick Taylor and sophomore Darion Taylor.
“They like put a lot of pressure on you, they are going to try to get in your face and turn you over,” Tarlton said. “We’ve seen that before and we know how to handle it. We just have to stick to what we do, we have to take care of the ball and we have to win the rebound battle. We are going to count on Lawson (Davenport) a lot, and if we can handle the pressure its going to leave somebody with an open shot.”
Coming into the year the Huskies knew they would have to find a way to replace the program’s all-time scoring leader in Jason Britton. By Thanksgiving they were searching for a way to replace their most proven leader in Bennett McLain who suffered a season-ending knee injury.
Immediately following McLain’s injury North Greene went 5-4 over the next month, but on the morning of December 20 the Huskies beat Hancock County 67-46, and they have not lost since. Now they are riding a 22-game win streak into the state tournament.
Seniors Lawson Davenport and Lance Carrico, and junior Tyler Britton have taken over the leadership of the team and done most of the scoring through the win streak. But the reason the Huskies are playing in Murfreesboro this week is because of defense. Jaiden Bailey, Thomas Darnell, Isaac Gaby and Yeshua Vaught have been integral in that effort with their relentless effort.
Throughout the season Tarlton has preached the importance of keeping the score low, limiting their turnovers and winning the rebounding battle. They have been able to do that almost every night for the past three months, and the coach is hopeful that after experiencing the state tournament a year ago they will be ready to do it again this week.
“I think playing down there last year will help these guys. They know what to expect. And this is a group that won’t back down from anybody, especially these juniors, they aren’t scared of a fight,” Tarlton said.
Tarlton believes it will be important for his team to start quickly on Wednesday with the early morning start. Leading up to the tournament the team has practiced in the morning a few times. To bolster those practices Tarlton has brought in some veterans from his four previous state tournament teams (2018, 2021, 2022, 2024) and he thinks the hard practices will have his squad ready for state tournament action.
“We haven’t really talked about it, but I think you see in those early games the team that gets going early has the best chance,” Tarlton said. “We can’t come out sleep walking. It’s like a summer-camp game, we’ve been on that schedule before. We have practiced in the morning a couple times to get ready. We have had some really good practices, and they have almost been like games. We have brought in some older guys to challenge us. I think we have had a guy from every one of our state tournament teams here at practice, which is pretty cool.”
This will be the Huskies’ seventh state tournament appearance in program history. They last advanced to the semifinals in 2021 after beating Richland 56-55 in the opening round.
On the same side of the bracket as North Greene are defending state champion Chattanooga Prep (26-8), and Santa Fe (28-3), the team that eliminated the Huskies last year.
On the other side of the bracket Hillcrest (26-3) will play Pickett County (25-7), and Harriman (24-6) will play Wayne County (26-8) in the quarterfinals.
