Lady Huskies Drop Roller Coaster Title Game To Unaka

ELIZABETHTON – For the second year in-a-row North Greene and Unaka squared off in the District 1-1A Championship and for the second year in-a-row the Unaka Lady Rangers reigned supreme with a 56-51 win to capture gold.

“It’s disappointing. Everybody wanted to come up here and win a District Championship. Especially after the good start we got off to a real good start,” North Greene Head Coach James Buchanan said.

Despite the cold conditions outside, things were heating up inside Bayless Gymnasium. It was a roller coaster of a contest. North Greene led by 20, trailed by 13, went on a 24-3 run, allowed a 38-6 run, then went on a 10-0 run to cut it to two, but the Lady Huskies could not reach the finish line first and came up just short.

The Lady Huskies appeared in their ninth-consecutive District 1-1A Championship. They won five-straight from 2018-22, but have now lost four-straight after Monday’s loss.

Tralyn Southerland was dominant in the first and fourth quarters and finished with 22 points to lead all scorers. Unaka had three in double figures with Michelle Shields and Kalli Shepard scoring 15 and Emma Whitaker scored 10.

North Greene will get to host the first round of the Region 1-1A Tournament at Jerome Woolsey Gymnasium. The Lady Huskies will defend The Den against Hancock County on Friday night at 7 PM.

North Greene is now 25-6 heading into regional.

“That’ll be special,” Buchanan stated. “Those kids will get to run out one more time in The Den and play in front of the home crowd. We’re excited about it.”

Tralyn Southerland was a force to be reckoned with in the first quarter and scored North Greene’s first eight points of the night. “We always try to feed it in there. We feel like it creates an advantage for us because if they try to play her one-on-one she does a good job at scoring over both shoulders,” Buchanan said. Southerland began with an and-one. Kalli Shepard immediately tied it with a three-pointer and helped Unaka take a brief 6-5 lead with another triple. This lead would be Unaka’s only lead of the first half and the beginning of their dry spell.

After falling behind 6-5, North Greene went on a 24-3 run and held a commanding 29-9 lead. Southerland’s layup regained the lead. As Southerland scored North Greene’s first eight of the game, Eva Leonard scored the final seven. Leonard began her string of seven-straight with a floater in the paint, followed it up with a corner three, and finished with a layup after a steal at halfcourt.

The Lady Huskies finished the first on a 12-3 run and led 17-9 after the first quarter.

North Greene strung together 12-straight points before a Lady Ranger three at the end of the quarter and proceeded to score 12-straight again to start the second. Natalie Foshie drained a three-pointer right off the rip and Ella Head sank a three next. Josie Graham stole an inbounds pass leading to a Foshie layup and Graham scored a layup herself after multiple offensive rebounds. Leonard finished the run with a layup.

They held their largest lead of the game at 29-9 and finished a 24-3 run before everything started slowly falling apart.

Brooklyn Campbell netted a foul shot and scored Unaka’s first points of the frame with five-and-a-half remaining. Shepard sank back-to-back three-point bombs and finished a 7-0 Unaka run to close it to 29-16. Graham halted the run for a moment with a layup, but Unaka then went on an 8-0 run to close out the half. The second quarter run wound up being a 15-2 Lady Ranger run and Unaka cut the score to 31-24 entering the half.

At halftime you may have expected the time off to help cool Unaka down and allow North Greene’s adjustments to work and hold them off from making a further comeback. But Unaka never cooled off.

Kalli Shepard nailed her fifth three of the game to open up the third. Brooklyn Campbell scored a layup and Michelle Shields, who was held to only two points in the first half, tied the game with a three-point shot. Unaka’s run reached 22-3 and tied it 32-32. Josie Graham hit a three right after Shields for a 35-32 lead. Shields responded moments later with a three and gave Unaka a 37-35 lead with 4:12 left in the third. It was their first lead since 6-5 in the first.

After Graham’s three, North Greene went scoreless the rest of the quarter and Unaka scored 13 unanswered to hold a 45-35 lead after three.

Sometimes when it’s your night, it’s your night. Unaka was a prime example of that on Monday night. Michelle Shields began the fourth with a three-pointer that bounced off the back of the iron and somehow landed just right to pop straight back up and down for three.

That three-pointer was a big shot in the game because it gave Unaka their largest lead at 48-35 and ended Unaka’s run at 38-6.

North Greene came storming back and scored 10-straight to pull within three late. And guess who led the charge. Tralyn Southerland scored seven in-a-row with an and-one, two free throws, and a layup. Ella Head drained a huge three to make it 48-45.

Three minutes remained on the clock and Unaka started wasting as much clock as possible on each possession. A near minute long possession ended with Brooklyn Campbell sinking a pair of free throws. Unaka led 52-47 with two minutes left.

Both teams went through empty possessions as the clock dipped below sixty seconds. Southerland was fouled on a shot and sank both free throws with 48 seconds left. 16 seconds later Campbell made another pair of free throws and Unaka held a 54-49 lead with 32 seconds left. Southerland made a layup in the paint to cut it to three, 54-51, with 17 seconds remaining. North Greene couldn’t get a steal and fouled Shields with 15 seconds left. The District 1-1A Player of the Year proved her worth and sank both free throws in a big moment to put the game out of reach.

Unaka was down 29-9 and finished the game on a 47-22 run to beat North Greene 56-51 and win their second-straight District 1-1A Championship.

“Even though I’m disappointed at the same time, this is going to sound weird, I’m also proud of them. Because we got down by 13 and I looked up a few minutes later and we’re down 3. We fought back too. Our kids didn’t lay down and quit. We knew it was going to be a hard-fought game,” Buchanan explained.

All-District 1-1A

Michelle Shields, Unaka (Player of the Year)

Brooklyn Campbell, Unaka (Underclassmen of the Year)

Kaitlyn Dugger, Unaka

Arianna Sutherland, Unaka

Kalli Shepard, Unaka

Eva Leonard, North Greene

Ella Head, North Greene

Tralyn Southerland, North Greene

Regan Blair, Cloudland (Defensive Player of the Year)

Eowyn McCoury, Cloudland

Makinna Shell, Cloudland