Lady Huskies Battle Back, But Unaka Takes Region Title In OT

ELIZABETHTON – The North Greene girls basketball team battled on Wednesday night and sent the Region 1-1A championship game in overtime, but in the extra period the Lady Rangers finished on top for the third time in four meetings between the two squads.

North Greene trailed by as many as eight points with 12 minutes left to play, but they kept chipping away and even briefly led before Unaka sealed the 63-61 win with free throws in the final seconds.

“We’re disappointed with the result, but I don’t know that I would be any more proud of them than if we had won,” North Greene coach James Buchanan said. “We got down a few times, but we fought back. We survived a bombardment of threes in the first half. These girls tried so hard. I’m so proud of them, in spite of the result.”

Despite what could have been a gut-wrenching loss Buchanan was optimistic on Wednesday night because of the effort he saw out of his team on the floor of Bayless Gymnasium at Happy Valley High School. He still believes the Lady Huskies have what it takes to make the state tournament for a sixth consecutive season, and did not discount the possibility of seeing the Lady Rangers for a fifth time with a state title on the line.

“I have never felt this before, and maybe I shouldn’t say it. There have been times I felt like two teams from our district can get to the state tournament, but I have a feeling that we could see them again on that last Saturday,” Buchanan said. “I think both teams are good enough to do that. This isn’t something I’m trying to drum up, those girls make me confident in them. I know every night I’m going to get maximum effort. When you have that as a coach you are going to be confident you can beat anybody.”

To get back to the state tournament the Lady Huskies will have to win on the road on Saturday in the Class 1A State Sectionals. North Greene will visit Region 2-1A champion Oneida on Saturday. Oneida beat Coalfield 49-43 in its championship game.

“Saturday will not be easy, they have a good team and a great atmosphere. But we’re ready to go up there,” Buchanan said. “In the little bit I’ve seen they are similar to Unaka in that they can shoot from multiple positions. It’s going to be tough game, but we are excited for the opportunity.”

Wednesday’s second half started with Unaka leading 39-32, and with 3:55 left in the period Tournament MVP Michelle Shields knocked down a jumper from the lane to make it 44-36.

North Greene answered with a jumper from the short corner by Cadie McDevitt, and then in a nine-second span tough rebounding earned the Lady Huskies three trips to the free-throw line. In the those trips North Greene went 3-of-6 to close the gap to 44-41.

The fourth quarter began with Unaka leading 46-43, but North Greene quickly got one back when the Lady Rangers started the period with six players on the floor. Ella Head made one of her two technical free throws.

McDevitt laid one off the glass to tie the game at 48-48, but Shields pushed her team back in front with a three-pointer from the right wing.

With 2:17 left in regulation McDevitt gave the Lady Huskies their first lead of the second half when she fired in a triple from the left wing that made it 52-51.

With 21 seconds on the clock McDevitt came up clutch again. This time Tralyn Southerland kicked her a pass from the paint and the sophomore guard drained a trey from the corner that evened things at 55-55.

McDevitt missed much of the Lady Huskies’ season because of injury, but now healthy she has become a key part of North Greene’s offense. On Wednesday she led her team in scoring with 17 points.

“I’m so proud of her,” Buchanan said “Even a week ago she was back, but her rhythm wasn’t back. She got frustrated during the districts. But we know what we have in Cadie, she’s a dandy. It’s so encouraging to see her making those plays as a sophomore.”

Both teams had a chance to end things in regulation after the Lady Rangers called a timeout with 13 seconds. First Shields took a rushed shot that Kalli Shepard tried to put back but Southerland stuffed it.

Head started the fast break for North Greene and sent a pass to Josie Graham in the lane. Graham tried to catch and shoot in one motion, but she never got control of the ball. Natalie Foshie did get off an off-balanced leaner before the horn, but it was off the mark.

“It took a lot of heart and guts to get this to overtime. These kids never say die. They are just now getting to where they playing well together. We just played a really good team tonight,” Buchanan said.

Southerland scored the first points of overtime by powering in a shot from the block.

Unaka went back in front when Shields and Katlyn Dugger each sank a pair of free throws.

Shields went to the line on a hand check beyond 30 feet from the rim. It was a modest level of contact when compared to the slapping, shoving and grabbing North Greene’s Southerland endured almost incessantly on Wednesday while the officials watched with seemingly little interest in enforcing the rules.

With two minutes left Leonard was able to drop in a floater to even the score at 59-59, and two free throws by Foshie put the Lady Huskies in front 61-59.

Shields pulled up for a jumper from the elbow with 1:35 to knot things again at 61-61.

North Greene’s chance to answer was erased when McDevitt was called for the first moving screen of the night, mimicking the procedure Unaka’s Keyona Hauge used no less than a half dozen times to get her side’s shooters open.

Unaka was able to run the clock down to 15 seconds before Shields went back to the foul stripe and sealed the 63-61 win for her side.

Southerland had one last chance to tie the game for North Greene, and like much of the rest of the night she took body contact while being hacked on a layup. And again, the rules of the game were not applied to contact on the Lady Huskies’ center.

To make matters worse for Southerland, the Lady Huskies’ top scorer and rebounder, she had to manage her time on the floor over the final 22 minutes when she was assigned her second foul in the 10^th minute.

The problem was that second foul was a one-on-one, open-floor foul was committed by Leonard with no other defender within 10 feet. Only the most doltish adjudicator could mistake Leonard, the Lady Huskies’ point guard, for Southerland, the Lady Huskies’ center. The difference in appearance is stark, nevertheless the wrong attribution stood to the revelry of those clad in maroon.

Wednesday started with North Greene jumping in front 16-9 with 1:12 left in the first quarter when Foshie went the length of the floor for a layup.

In the final minute of the first quarter Unaka’s Emma Whitaker landed a jumper from the lane and then Shields sank a three-pointer that closed the gap to 16-14.

Just over a minute into the second quarter Unaka went in front for the first time at 19-16 on a triple by Shepard.

Three-pointers continued to fly for the Lady Rangers as they hit from deep seven times in the quarter. Whitaker knocked down four of those and Shields hit from deep twice as the lead grew to 39-32 at halftime.

Shields led all scorers on Wednesday with 30 points. Whitaker scored 17 for Unaka with 16 coming in the first half.

In addition to 17 points from McDevitt North Greene got 13 points from Southerland and Leonard finished with 10 points.