North Greene’s Lady Huskies basketball team opened up the final day of the Andrew Johnson Bank Ladies Classic with a tough 50-45 loss to Morristown West in the day’s opening game.
It was a formidable matchup for the Lady Huskies going into it. Very rarely do they play any Class 4A competition and they stood tall in their test against the Lady Trojans.
“It’s a 4A school. Big, strong athletes. Fast kids that are playing really hard. It’s a challenge, but nobody ever said winning was easy. If winning was easy everybody would do it. I do think we put ourselves in positions to win, but at the end of the day we’ve just got some mistakes we’ve got to clean up,” Head Coach James Buchanan said.
Even in defeat, Buchanan’s witty humor found its way into his post-game interview to describe the physicality of a 1A team battling against a 4A team.
He continued later by saying, “In wrestling they’d have these tag teams and when they’re coming to the ring the phrase they would use is ‘total combined weight.’ You’d have two of these big 300-pound guys and they’d say a total combined weight of 600 pounds. Sometimes you’d have Earthquake and Typhoon, The Natural Disasters from back in the 80s, they’re close to 800 pounds. If you look at Morristown West’s lineup and you look at ours, especially out on the perimeter, I’d say we’re way behind.”
Both teams held their share of leads throughout the first three quarters, but a string of turnovers in the fourth quarter turned into points for West that created a small gap that North Greene couldn’t overcome. The Lady Huskies had opportunities at the end to cut it to one possession or tie it, but just couldn’t get the right shots to fall.
Loren Blevins shot lights out in the first half though and ended with a team-high 17 points with five three-pointers. She dueled with Delaney Weddington who also finished with a team-high 17 for West.
North Greene started the game cold from the field, but heated up and shot 50% in the first half. They boasted an impressive 63% from three-point land at the half. Coach Buchanan’s preparation for West’s diamond and one press allowed a lot of those shots to fall.
“Their primary press that they like to use is a diamond and one. I thought our kids did a great job of not only breaking it but turning it into baskets. Loren’s hitting threes on the back side of it or we’re looking at Hannah diving in there after we broke the press. It caused us no trouble,” he mentioned.
Jhaniya Mitchell started the contest with a triple before Blevins finally scored North Greene’s first two points from the free-throw line with 3:34 left in the first quarter. They finished the quarter with a pair of corner threes from Blevins and a top-of-the-key triple from Josie Graham. North Greene led 11-9 after one.
The Lady Huskies scored six-straight to open up the second. Hannah Miller’s post work scored her first two of the game. Graham grabbed an offensive board and put it back on the glass before dishing an assist to Miller for a layup.
Their lead grew to 17-9, but evaporated quickly. The Lady Trojans scored 8-straight points without allowing North Greene to even cross half court. Weddington sank a pull-up jumper from the elbow. North Greene committed a turnover on the inbounds and Kalyca Dinkins turned it into three points. Weddington ended the run with another three after another turnover committed. Kaitlyn Bohanon ended West’s 10-0 run with an offensive put back.
Turnovers and offensive rebounds were ultimately the difference maker in the game. North Greene lost the turnover battle 18-11 and lost the offensive rebound battle 19-6. “19 offensive rebounds for Morristown West. They hurt us really bad on the glass. It wasn’t like one girl was getting whipped all day, it was our whole team that was getting whipped on the offensive glass. You look at the stat sheet and we end up with 18 turnovers and you can’t do that. When you’re giving up second-chance points off missed shots and you’re giving them extra opportunities off turnovers it’s going to be difficult to win,” Coach Buchanan expressed.
Blevins gained the hot shooting hand again and finished the quarter with another pair of three-point bombs. North Greene regained the lead with a 23-21 advantage at the half.
Morristown West’s Delaney Weddington scored four-straight to swing the lead back into their favor. Their lead grew to 30-25 after a steal-and-score by Aubrie Messer and a steal-and-score three-pointer from Kara Dyke. North Greene slowly worked their back to take a brief lead. Hannah Miller laid the ball off the glass and Mercy Buchanan netted a pair of free throws. Maddie Simpson delivered another put back for West before Josie Graham scored a layup and Cadie McDevitt hit two foul shots to go ahead 33-32.
North Greene almost walked into the fourth quarter with the lead until Messer nailed a fadeaway three as the buzzer sounded. Morristown West led 35-33 headed into the final quarter.
Miller immediately tied it with layup ten seconds into the fourth and McDevitt sank a three in the corner to put the Lady Huskies up three. A 6-0 run by West put them ahead until Blevins made her final three of the contest and tied it at 41-41. After Weddington secured a layup, Kaydence Marshall drained a triple to give North Greene their final lead of the morning at 44-43.
West finished the game on a 7-1 run with crucial points in the paint. Maddie Simpson scored four of her six points in the final stretch with a couple layups. Bohanon’s steal led to a jumper in the paint and Weddington was fouled in the final minute and made 1-of-2 free throws. North Greene had an opportunity with less than 30 seconds to close the gap to one possession but multiple missed shots led to the end of the game once West grabbed one more defensive rebound.
The Lady Huskies fell just short by the final of 50-45 in their final game of the 2024 calendar year.
Loren Blevins led them with 17 points and Hannah Miller scored 10.
Delaney Weddington scored 17 to lead West.
“Overall, I’m pleased with our tournament. We went 1-2. I think the worst game we played was the first day, so I feel like we got better by playing in this,” Buchanan ended with.
