After losing top player Bennett McLain to a season-ending injury a last week the North Greene boys came together on Thursday night and picked up a decisive 65-36 win over Chuckey-Doak.
“I thought we played hard tonight. We had a lot of energy, and we shot the ball better. We were guarding well, and you have to be pleased with holding a team to 36 points,” North Greene coach Sam Tarlton said. “It’s been a tough week, we got some bad news about Bennett, but we are going to rally around him and play for him the rest of the way.”
The evening started with North Greene’s Tyler Britton finding his stroke from behind the arc as he connected from deep three times in the opening quarter. He finished the game with five three-pointers and a team high 21 points.
“Tyler is a good shooter, but it feels like he’s only hit three all year, and then hit three in the first quarter tonight,” Tarlton said. “Everything comes back to the mean. He got that monkey off of his back by seeing a few go through the hole. I was really proud of him tonight.”
Britton’s third trey with 47 seconds left in the quarter put North Greene in front 17-10, but Chuckey-Doak’s Ryland Grindsatff beat the buzzer with a step-back triple to close the gap to 17-13.
In the second quarter the Huskies began to assert themselves, and led by Lance Carrico on both ends of the floor they quickly began to extend their lead.
Carrico and Jaiden Bailey each hit from behind the arc to get the Huskies going early in the period. Carrico then finished off a steal from Lawson Davenport before Davenport came down the baseline for a runner that put North Greene in front 31-19.
“When Lance plays with the energy and activity he played with tonight we are a different team,” Tarlton said. “His energy tonight made us twice as good as a team, but you never know when he’s going to decide to do that. We need that every night.”
North Greene went to halftime leading 33-21.
The Huskies really blew the game open in the early portion of the third quarter as they started the second half on a 12-2 run. Britton scored eight points in the run with two more three-pointers. Thomas Darnell scored four points on the inside as the lead grew to 45-23.
Grindstaff scored six points in the final 1:19 of the period for Chuckey-Doak, but North Greene went to the fourth quarter leading 51-31.
In the fourth quarter the Huskies’ defense used pressure on the perimeter from Bailey, Davenport and Isaac Gaby to hold Chuckey-Doak without a field goal for four minutes.
On offense Carrico hit from behind the arc while Britton and Davenport scored on the inside as the lead grew to 59-31.
The night finished with the Huskies on top 65-36.
In addition to Britton’s 21 points Carrico scored 12 points for North Greene and Darnell added 10.
Grindstaff scored 21 of Chuckey-Doak’s 36 points.
