The Greeneville girls basketball showed some signs of a long layoff early on Friday night, but they shook that off in the second half to take down Grainger 62-46 and stay unbeaten in District 2-3A play.
“We all knew that our sea legs would not be under us, because we’ve not played since the 29th and only practiced twice…it was a little rough for the Lady Devils at the beginning but I challenged them at halftime and they responded beautifully.”
Maria Lyde scored the first eight points for Greeneville but the Grainger was able to keep pace through the first quarter. Julia Woolsey hit back-to-back buckets and Matea Gray’s layup in transition gave the Lady Devils a brief two point lead with under a minute left in the first quarter.
Grainger ended the first quarter with buckets on consecutive possessions to take a 16-14 lead.
Woolsey hit a little runner in the lane for the first points of the second quarter and Brylee Tullock made layups on consecutive possessions. Lyde scored from down low and on a coast to coast layup through contact. At the free throw she gave the Lady Devils a seven point lead with just under three minutes to play in the first half.
Jordan Swatzell dropped a triple from the elbow but Cara Dalton scored the next seven points as the Lady Grizzlies cut the lead to 29-26 at halftime.
Greeneville went on a 12-0 run to open the third quarter that turned a three-point game into 15-point lead. The biggest shot of the quarter was a corner three by Swatzell, her 100th career triple as a Lady Devil.
The Lady Devils maintained that 15 point lead throughout the third quarter and they shook off any rust that they may have had earlier in the game to lead 48-33 heading into the fourth quarter.
Grainger managed to cut the lead to 10 when Maribeth Stratton hit a corner three, but Woolsey went back to work with consecutive layups, one off the glass and one in transition.
Tullock went one of two from the charity stripe and then she shattered any hopes the Lady Grizzlies had for a comeback with a triple from the top of the key.
After Tullock’s dagger the Lady Devils cruised on to a 62-46 win.
”At halftime we had a nice chat, I just challenged them, I said if they take the lead how do we catch up,” Watts said. “Tullock said ‘hey y’all lets go’, she’ll take that challenge and step up, and we made them turn it over, and turn it over, and I was real proud of them.”
GREENEVILLE – Woolsey 19, Lyde 19, Tullock 13, Swatzell 9, Gray 2
GRAINGER – Roach 18, Dalton 10, Hayes 5, Stratton 5, Mills 4, Nickels 2, Caldwell 2
BOYS
Grainger 62, Greeneville 59
The Greeneville Greene Devils lost a heartbreaker to Grainger at home Friday night 62-59 in game that went down to the wire. The see-saw affair that multiple lead changes and momentum and emotional swings.
Yordan Mills gave the Devils an early six point lead at 9-3 with a pair of free throws at the five minute mark of the first quarter. The Devils would go the next four minutes before scoring again while Kade Williams was knocking down three on the other end of the floor.
The first quarter closed with things tied at 13-13.
Through nearly six minutes of the second quarter nothing had been decided and neither team had taken control. Then freshman Zy Neal made a spin move under the goal through contact for a reverse layup that was good, and the free throw completed the three-point play.
Braylen Kidwell drilled a corner three and Ryan Maggert came off the bench to drop one in from behind the arc to put the Greene Devils up by seven with less that a minute to play in the half.
The Devils would take a 31-25 lead into the locker room at the half.
Grainger’s Carter Williams would cut the six point lead in half with a triple from the top of the key. Carver Turley scored under the goal and Jackson Trent made a pair of free throws to give the Grizzlies the lead at 32-31.
The two teams matched each other bucket for bucket over the next four minutes. Mills drained a corner three to give the Devils a four-point lead. Just seconds later he tossed a pass to Taren Clairdy on a fastbreak and Clairdy went in for the slam to give the Devils a six point lead and the shot in the arm they needed at the 2:07 mark. But Clairdy was whistled for a technical foul on the play.
Carter Williams would shoot the technical free throws, while Williams was at the line, Greene Devil Coach Brad Woolsey had a discussion with the official and the official apparently didn’t approve of what coach Woolsey had to say and Woolsey was assessed a technical foul as well. Williams made all four free throws, Williams then drove the lane for a layup and the momentum the Devils had just seconds earlier had turned into momentum for the Grizzle’s on two questionable technical fouls.
Mills dropped a triple from the corner but Williams tied the score at 50-50 with a triple from the right elbow as the quarter was winding down.
Early in the fourth quarter William Woolsey hit a three-pointer and the Devils were up 57-52 with 4:20 to play.
Grainger scored the next six points to take the lead at 58-57 before Neal was good in the paint to give the lead back to the Devils with 1:30 to play.
Carter Williams then hit a triple from NBA range to give the lead back to the Grizzlies with 45 seconds to play. Mills off balance shot with eight seconds was off the mark, the Devils fouled and sent Coy Morgan to the line, where he made one of two. The Devils got the rebound but their final desperation shot was off the mark and the Devils lost a game that they maybe deserved to win if not for the late third quarter momentum swing.
“One technical is one thing but when you go back-to-back technicals, and they knock all the free throws and then score, that’s a massive swing in the game. We should have been rolling,” Woolsey said. “Now to bounce back after a tough loss the biggest thing is you just have to stay together and stay connected. That’s probably number one, number two is you just have to get back to work and that’s something we’ve not had in the last 10 days.”
GREENEVILLE – Mills 19, Neal 12, Clairdy 11, Quillen 6, Kidwell 5, Maggert 3, Woolsey 3
GRAINGER – Cwilliams 22, KWilliams 14, Trent 10, Morgan 8, Turley 8
