ROGERSVILLE – West Greene struggled to find a rhythm on Wednesday night and suffered a 53-52 loss in the opening round of the Big H BBQ Bash to Union County at Cherokee High School.
“Five steps forward and seven steps back. Okay with being mediocre. That’s all it comes down to. Nowhere near the same team I saw play last night. Got selfish, didn’t share the ball, I don’t even want to know how many layups we missed, missed box outs. Until we decide that we’re okay with just beating the county teams and winning a couple games then we’re going to be stuck in the same boat that we’ve been in. And right now, that’s what it showed me tonight. We won last night and we’re okay with that,” Buffaloes Head Coach Allen Tolliver stated.
After a selfless, total team effort against North Greene one night prior, a displeased Coach Tolliver expressed his displeasures with Wednesday’s performance, “Straight up, just didn’t play to expectations. Got lazy and got out of tendencies. I thought we had created good tendencies and it seems we’re back to the old habits.”
The Buffaloes held an early nine-point lead in the second quarter, but watched it quickly evaporate and allowed Union to play too close to the lead until they eventually snatched it away from them at the end.
Ayden Lamons and Ty Edds dueled on both ends of the court and each led their teams in scoring. Lamons had 20 while Edds led all scorers with 24, 20 of that came in the second half.
Lamons and Edds weren’t a huge factor in the first half and only combined for 10 of the 42 points in the half. Lamons did score West Greene’s first basket on a putback, but didn’t score again until the second quarter.
Union took an early 5-2 lead, but an Elijah Williams three pointer tied the game and four-straight points from Conner Campbell capped off a 7-0 run to give West Greene the lead. They didn’t trail again until the third quarter.
Kaden Carroll scored the last four points in the quarter for Union to cut it to 11-9 entering the second.
The Buffs stretched their lead out to 17-9 after three-straight transition layups from Sam Wisecarver, Ayden Lamons, and Conner Campbell. The lead rose to 21-12 before Ty Edds began his scoring tear with a mid-range jumper and a fastbreak dunk to start a 9-0 Patriot run.
Both teams were tied 21-21 at halftime.
Max Corum landed a three pointer from long range to give Union their first lead since 5-2. Edds and Lamons took over in the third quarter. Edds heated up with 11 and Lamons kept pace with 10. West Greene held a slim 40-39 lead after the third.
Elijah Williams sprang to life in the fourth and provided West Greene with crucial buckets in the opening stretch of the fourth. He scored six-straight for his team to keep the game tied at 46-46.
Another fastbreak dunk by Edds lifted Union back on top before Braden McCamey tied it again with an inside layup. Lamons took the lead back with a layup underneath before Union landed the biggest blow.
Edds drove inside and laid it in with a foul added on. The free throw he made would turn out to be the deciding point.
Lamons provided another layup with time winding down before Kaden Carroll secured the go-ahead layup with 14.2 left on the clock.
The Buffs had a clean look at the buzzer, but the shot was off target and West Greene saw its six-game winning streak come to an end at the hands of Union County 53-52.
West Greene slides into the loser’s bracket and will face the loser of tomorrow’s Cherokee vs. Phelps (KY) game on Friday at 11:30 a.m. at Cherokee High School.
Lamons led the Buffs with 20 points, Campbell delivered 13, and Williams produced 11.
Edds scored a game-high 24 points. Carroll also had 15.
