BLUFF CITY – The Greeneville girls led from start to finish in a wire-to-wire 64-56 victory over old rival Morristown West in the Food City Thanksgiving Classic on Wednesday afternoon.
The win was sweeter than most non-conference regular season wins are. After losing to the Lady Trojans by 42 in the summer, Greeneville had a little more to prove on Wednesday night in Bluff City. The Lady Devils fully-loaded roster made an impact and dominated on their way to a convincing win.
“Feels so good. This summer we played them and they beat us by 42, but we’ve added a few people since then. We’ve certainly gotten better,” Greeneville Head Coach Annette Watts explained.
Brylee Tullock heated up in the second and third quarters and finished with a game-high 26 points. Maria Lyde and Julia Woolsey scored a dozen each to help out. Greeneville’s starters scored 59 of their 64 points.
Greeneville started with a made basket as Jordan Swatzell knocked down the first shot attempt from the floor. Lyde took over and scored seven-straight with the first six in the paint on three layups. They led 9-0 with 5:29 left in the first.
Jhaniya Mitchell scored a layup halfway through the first for West’s first bucket.
Tullock was responsible for the next four points with a layup then an assist to Swatzell for two more. Greeneville led by as much as 15-2 before Kinleigh Holt drained a three to end the run.
Greeneville led 21-9 after the first quarter.
The Lady Devils ability to finish around the rim in the first quarter was key. Morristown West had the size and height advantage in the post, but Greeneville was still able to finish at a high rate despite being the smaller team.
“I didn’t hardly know what to think that we could get in there around those two big girls and finish. Maria was really strong and really going after it,” Watts stated.
Tullock began to heat up in the second quarter and scored six straight with a triple and an and-one play. The Lady Trojans fought back with a three from Holt to cut the margin to six. Greeneville’s Allison Hayes responded with a three of her own to put the margin back up to nine, but Mitchell scored four-straight to cut Greeneville’s lead to only 35-30 at the half.
The Lady Devils came back out of the half and tried running away with it with a hot start to the third. Tullock started with a pull-up jumper and Woolsey took it inside for a layup. Swatzell nailed a three-pointer next to make it 43-34.
Lyde turned it up on both sides of the ball with a second-chance layup on offense and a steal on defense that later led to a layup by Tullock. Tullock scored five more to end the quarter with a tough layup in the paint and a step-back three-point shot.
Holt drained a corner three at the buzzer to make it a single-digit margin for Greeneville going into the fourth with a 52-43 lead.
Coach Watts challenged her girls at halftime to be better defensively and she was pleased with the effort they showed in response. “I thought we came back out and responded a little better with that. Our zone helped us in the second quarter to weather a lot of their storm.”
Morristown West never truly faded away and stayed competitive the whole second half and cut their deficit to six with a three-ball from Holt.
Woolsey made a pair of big plays with a layup and three-pointer to extend the lead. Matea Gray scored a layup in transition to set the score at 59-46, but West still wouldn’t go down easy. Holt and Mitchell scored back-to-back layups and then Holt and Simpson did the same a couple minutes later to make it 61-54 with two minutes left.
Jhaniya Mitchell’s layup with 53.1 left cut it to six at 62-56.
Woolsey made a game-clinching play on defense and stripped the ball away with under 30 seconds left. The Lady Devils found Tullock and put the ball in her hands for two foul shots and she sank both to put it away.
Greeneville walked out of the Dyer Dome on Wednesday night with a 64-56 win.
Coach Watts was very pleased with the defensive effort on the floor and bragged about her unit tonight. “If you can defend Morristown West. You can defend about anybody. I’m a lot happier with it,” Watts said.
Brylee Tullock led all scorers with 26 points. Maria Lyde and Julia Woolsey had 12 points each. Jhaniya Mitchell led Morristown East with 20 points.
They will return back to the Dyer Dome on Saturday at 2:00 for a date with Watauga High School in their final game in the 11th annual Food City Thanksgiving Classic.
Greeneville led from start to finish in a wire-to-wire 64-56 win over Morristown East in the Food City Thanksgiving Classic. Hear how proud Lady Devils Coach Annette Watts was after the win. pic.twitter.com/aNsNQmzKID
— GreeneSportsZone (@GSportsZone) November 27, 2025
