ROGERSVILLE – The West Greene boys limped out of the gate on Monday, but the Buffaloes caught fire in the third quarter before escaping Cherokee High School with a dramatic win.
The game was decided on the final play when Ayden Lamons knocked down a jumper from beyond the elbow as the horn sounded to give the Buffaloes a hard-earned 59-57 win.
“This was a gutsy win. Going into the half down eight, in previous years we might have rolled over,” West Greene coach Allen Tolliver said. “But this group stepped up, took their chewing in the locker room, and they responded. We swung the game in the third quarter, and we knew Cheroke would come back in the fourth. On the final play they were ready, they weren’t rattled, and when the ball got to (Lamons) he made a big play.”
The second half started with Cherokee leading 27-19, but tough defense and an offense that started finding good looks quickly turned the game around. By the midway point in the quarter Sam Wisecarver drove the lane and for a lay in that closed the gap to 29-31.
With 2:42 left in the third period the Buffs found Lamons on the block to even the score at 31-31, and before the Chiefs could make it to midcourt Elijah Williams jumped in front of a pass to give west Greene the lead for the first time.
Williams continued with a triple and a runner from the baseline. With 22 seconds remaining Conner Campbell drove to the rim to put West Greene in front 40-31.
Landon Jeffers ended the third quarter with a three-pointer for Cherokee to close the gap to 40-34.
Cherokee refused to let Buffs cruise to a win on its home court and started connecting from behind the arc in the fourth quarter. With 5:26 left to play Isaiah Jones hit from deep in the left corner to even the score at 44-44.
After Braden McCamey hit a triple from the right wing and then a jumper from the short corner West Greene was back on top 51-47.
With nine seconds remaining Braxton Marcum nailed a straight-away trey to even the score at 57-57.
Tolliver called a timeout immediately and then again with 4.6 seconds remaining after the ball reached midcourt. On the sideline inbound Wisecarver came around a screen to receive the ball and then attacked the lane. Just before time expired he dumped the ball to Lamons who launched over the defense and gave the Buffs a 59-57 win.
“We had three options on that play. We knew we had plenty of time for Sam to make his move. He went to the middle and (Lamons) popped out. We had a kick out to the corner too, but Ayden was the open one and Sam made the right call,” Tolliver said.
Not only did Lamons provide the winning bucket on Monday, but he led West Greene with 17 points, and his defensive presence in the paint was key to the Buffaloes’ second-half turnaround.
“He was our motor all night, he was the guy that got us going,” Tolliver said. “When we get an inside touch good things happen. We’ve joked all-year that he can’t dunk in practice until he gets an in-game dunk. I felt like the game turned for us when he got out on a fast break and threw one down. That’s when I felt like we had the momentum We are going to have nights where guys are off, and tonight he picked up that slack.”
In the first half offense was hard to find for West Greene and by the close of the first quarter Cherokee led 13-7. Markham hit from behind the arc twice in the opening period.
Cherokee’s biggest lead came at 25-12 when Markham sank a turn-around, fade-away jumper from the elbow.
West Greene scored seven points in the final 2:31 of the first half to close the gap to 27-19. Lamons drained a hook shot from the paint and then he set up McCamey for a three-pointer from the corner.
McCamey was also in double figures on Monday for West Greene with 15 points. Wisecarver, Campbell and Williams all had nine points.
