STONEY CREEK – The North Greene girls took the momentum into halftime on Friday night at Unaka, but the Lady Rangers flipped the game in the second half and stole a 57-53 win in the final seconds.
“We played tough. We finished the first quarter great, and we had a really good defensive second quarter. But we got off to a really bad start in the third quarter,” North Greene head coach James Buchanan said. “The game was super physical game, and it was a tough environment, but I’m proud of my kids for the effort they gave. We knew it was going to be tough win at Unaka. They played tough for three and a half quarters, but the way we finished wasn’t our best. They had a kid bank in a three, and sometimes a little luck is what it takes to win one when two teams are really battling.”
The win puts Unaka in control of District 1-1A with a 5-1 record. North Greene is now 3-2 in league play and will try to get back on track Saturday when it takes on Cloudland (3-1).
“We have to learn and move past this one, and maybe we will be better off for it,” Buchanan said. “We have to come back tomorrow and bounce back, and then we finish out the regular season with a flurry of games. We need to bring the same energy and effort tomorrow, but we have to able to make the adjustments on the fly.”
North Greene started the second half leading 33-21, but it took the Lady Huskies over four minutes to get a shot to fall in the third quarter. In that same time five points from Michelle Shields and a layup from Emma Whitaker closed the gap to 33-28.
Also during that opening stretch North Greene’s Tralyn Southerland was dinged with three fouls which forced the Lady Huskies’ top interior defender to change how she played in the paint the rest of the night. The last of those infractions was an offensive foul assessed with two defenders grasping her arms as she drove the lane.
North Greene finally got a shot to fall with 3:28 left in the third quarter on a layup by Southerland, but 11 seconds later Shields nailed a triple from the left wing to cut the lead down to 35-31.
After good ball rotation Ella Head nailed a triple for North Greene, but by the end of the quarter Unaka had closed the gap to 39-36.
Unaka’s Whitaker started the fourth quarter with a three-pointer from the left wing to even the score at 39-39.
Going the other way Eva Leonard grabbed an offensive rebound and fired up a triple for North Greene to give the advantage back to the Lady Huskies.
After Josie Graham fired a long pass ahead to Addi Dean for a transition layup North Greene led 48-41, with 5:35 left to play.
Then in a 1:12 stretch Unaka scored nine points, and after Brooklyn Campbell landed a three-pointer the Lady Ranger took their first lead in 21 minutes of game time at 50-48.
With 3:03 left to play Dean hit from deep to put North Greene back on top 51-50.
The Lady Huskies had chances to add to that lead, but two throw-away turnovers kept giving Unaka chances. With 1:12 left Whitaker made those extra chances hurt when she banked in a three-pointer that put the Lady Rangers in front 53-51.
With 29 seconds left Unaka slipped a pass to Shields cutting through the paint for the go-ahead layup. North Greene’s last chance to go in front came with 15 seconds left, but Head’s three-pointer was off the mark.
Friday’s action started with Unaka finding its stroke from beyond the arc with Shields connecting twice and Kalli Shepard once on the way to a 13-7 lead.
Over the final 2:31 North Greene went on a 12-2 run and swung in front 19-15. Leonard started the run with a three-pointer from the corner. She then capped the run by landing a floater at the buzzer. That came after Southerland blocked the tying attempt on the other end of the floor.
In the second quarter North Greene’s defense began to shut down the Lady Ranger’s dangerous shooters, and Southerland really got rolling on offense as she began to dominate the paint.
Southerland put North Greene in front 27-16 with a three-pointer from the top of the key. North Greene’s biggest lead was 31-16 with 3:07 left in the half when Natalie Foshie sent the ball into Southerland on the block and the sophomore powered home a layup.
Unaka’s only field goal of the second quarter was a three-pointer by Shields with 1:49 on the clock, and the Lady Huskies went to halftime leading 33-21.
Southerland led North Greene on Friday with 25 points, 18 came in the first half. Leonard finished with 11 points, and Head scored nine.
Shields scored 25 points for Unaka while Whitaker added 15 points.
BOYS
Unaka 65, North Greene 53
The North Greene boys kept battling back on Friday night, but they could not make a final run as they fell to Unaka 65-53.
“I feel like it’s the same ole, same ole. We play well for two-and-a-half or three quarters, and then we get lackadaisical,” North Greene coach Matt Weems said. “We cut lead to four in the third quarter and I thought we had something going. Then you look up and we’re down 12. It seems like when things get hard we get tired, and if I had an answer to fix that I would, but right now I don’t.”
The Huskies fall to 2-3 in District 1-1A play and after sitting idle for seven days they will close the regular season with six games in 11 days. They will be back in action on Saturday against Cloudland in the Huskies Den.
“Basketball is a tournament sport, and when you get to tournament time the winner stays. Maybe that is what this group needs. Maybe a little more pressure will bring that effort we need out of them for four quarters,” Weems said.
Friday started with Unaka jumping in front 11-2, but the deep ball was good to the Huskies and after Nathan Tolley came off the bench to nail a pair of triples the game was even at 11-11.
Unaka’s John Hardin drained a turnaround jumper from the left block the Rangers took a 13-11 lead into the second quarter.
North Greene tied things twice more in the second quarter. First at 17-17 when Havoc Fair nailed a three-pointer on an inbound play, and then at 19-19 when Thomas Darnell lofted in a floater.
Unaka answered with five points from Zach Wallin and a triple from Aiden Walsh to take a 27-23 lead into halftime.
In the third quarter Hardin, Unaka’s towering interior presence, began to get warmed up, and once the ball made it to his hands there was little North Greene could do to stop his soft lobs to the rim. Behind seven points from Hardin Unaka went in front 38-25.
At the midway point of the period Hardin took a steal the distance to put the home side up 42-28.
Undeterred, North Greene got two put backs from Darnell, and then a steal on the baseline from Isaac Gaby set up Tyler Britton for a corner three. On the next possession a steal by Fair led to Gaby hitting from long range. In just 47 seconds North Greene scored 10 points and closed the gap to 42-38.
The Huskies would not get any closer and Unaka went into the fourth quarter leading 49-41.
The game got away from North Greene in the early stages of the fourth quarter and after Hardin added eight more points the lead grew to 59-41 with 5:28 left to play.
North Greene did close gap in the late stages, but the hole was too big to dig out of.
Hardin led all scorers on Friday with 27 points while Walsh put in 16 points.
For North Greene Britton led the way with 14 points.
