In a game that ebbed and flowed back and forth into overtime on Tuesday night the South Greene girls were able to hang on for a 55-52 win over Unicoi County in its District 1-2A opener.
“This was a big game for us. It went back and forth, but our girls did a good job of responding to the pressure,” South Greene coach Stephen Gregg said. “This was a good game for us to win early in the season. (Unicoi) is a good team that is coached well. This won’t be the last we see of them.”
Both the Lady Rebels and Lady Blue Devils are expected to compete for the District 1-2A title this season, and for South Greene getting a leg up in the standings one game into the conference slate was valuable.
“I didn’t like the draw having to play them first, and they are probably saying the same thing,” Gregg said. “In this league it’s important to win your home games. The implications were big for the first conference game of the season, and I was proud of how the girls handled it. The girls have had two really good weeks of practice and they deserved to get a win today.”
Tuesday’s first half was played near even and South Greene took a 21-20 advantage into the break. Coming out of halftime the Lady Rebels found the advantage first after Ari Hoese drained a triple from the corner and Kortnei Bailey sank a jumper from the right wing to make it 28-23.
Unicoi came charging back like it did every time South Greene found the advantage on Tuesday, and with 4:12 left in the third period Brooklyn Sparks hit from behind the arc to tie things at 30-30.
Fifteen seconds later Neveah Davis answered by banking in a triple, and with 2:35 left in the quarter she found the bank open again to give South Greene a 38-30 advantage.
The Lady Blue Devils closed the gap to 38-34 at the close of the quarter.
South Greene’s biggest lead of the night came with 5:55 left in regulation when Alexa Gabbard found Hoese cutting to the basket to make it 43-34.
The Lady Devils tied things at 45-45 when Carly Baxter let a three-pointer fly from the corner, and they went in front with 1:19 on the clock when Abigail Vidrio laid one off the glass.
Going the other way Bailey knocked down and toe-on-the-line two to pull the Lady Rebels even at 47-47.
Over the final minute the whistles were not kind to South Greene as it lost possession when Hoese was dinged for throwing an elbow while being manhandled by a defender near midcourt. After getting a stop on defense Bailey had a chance at the buzzer but a pair of Lady Blue Devils smacked her arms out of the air on the shot attempt. Nothing was called and the game went to overtime.
With 1:40 left in the overtime period Bailey made a spin move the lane that buckled the knees of Vidrio and Samantha Birdwell found her open on the block for a 52-51 lead.
South Greene shut down Unicoi’s final two offensive possessions and Paisley Brobeck went 3-of-4 at the foul line to secure the Lady Rebels’ 55-52 win.
“We made some untimely turnovers, but they did a good job of responding to them with a stop,” Gregg said. “They went and got rebounds and put pressure on the ball. It was a scrappy game, but we battled and we found a way to persevere.”
Bailey led all scorers on Tuesday with 20 points.
“Kortnei did a good job of keeping her cool tonight. She has had some foul trouble lately and we have talked to her about how important it is to have her on the court,” Gregg said. “That’s not even to score, we just need her presence out there. She sees the floor well and we need to get her touches in the middle.”
Tuesday’s action started with the teams trading bucket and when Bailey knocked down a triple with 45 seconds on the clock things were knotted at 11-11.
In the second quarter Birdwell hit from deep and then Bailey went coast-to-coast for a lay in that put South Greene in front 21-17.
With 25 seconds on the clock Baxter scored three points the hard way to close the gap to 21-20.
Brobeck was also in double figures for South Greene with 12 points and Birdwell added 10 points.
Sparks led Unicoi County with 16 points, and Baxter had 14 points.
South Greene welcomed Unicoi County into District 1-2A by sending them home with a 55-52 loss and picked up a huge win to begin conference play 1-0. Hear what Head Coach Stephen Gregg’s thoughts were post game. pic.twitter.com/6VJT7XP1va
— GreeneSportsZone (@GSportsZone) December 10, 2025
BOYS
Unicoi County 58, South Greene 42
Scoring was a challenge for the South Greene boys on Tuesday night as they fell behind early and never caught up in a 58-42 loss to Unicoi County.
South Greene now finds itself in an early 0-1 hole in District 1-2A play while the Blue Devils picked up a valuable win on the road.
The Rebels led for the first 1:21 after Charlie Lane sank a three-pointer and Lucas Couch cut to the basket to make it 5-2.
Unicoi County scored 10 unanswered points to finish out the opening period. Jackson Simmons scored eight of those before A.J. Thomas converted a transition layup with three seconds left for a 12-5 lead.
In the second quarter Gavin Dyer smoothly drained a fade-away jumper and Noah Wright followed it by taking a steal the other way for a layup that closed the gap to 20-16.
South Greene never got any closer and went into halftime trailing 26-18.
Simmons scored 16 of those 26 Blue Devils’ points and finished the night with 25 points.
In the third quarter South Greene got five points from Lane and four from Couch, but it could not dent the Blue Devils lead. Three-pointers from Simmons and Cade Peterson sent Unicoi into the fourth quarter leading 38-29.
Thomas took over the scoring in the fourth quarter as he poured in 10 points for the Blue Devils as part of his 20-point night.
South Greene did not have a player in double figures but Couch scored nine points and Lane put in eight points on Tuesday.
