ERWIN – The South Greene boys sat idle for the past nine days waiting for their District 1-2A Tournament opener, but their offense showed no signs of a layoff as they turned their highest scoring output of the season on Saturday. The Rebels needed that kind of offense because they also allowed more points than they have at any point this season in a 95-87 win over Johnson County.
“Four guys in double figures, we scored 95 points, I’m supposed to be feeling good right now, but giving up 87 is not good,” South Greene coach Terry Hoese said. “We were lucky to have a size advantage and we used it. We haven’t played since last Thursday, and we missed practice because of weather, but these kids battled. We got this one out of the way and now we have to move forward.”
With the win South Greene advances to the District 1-2A championship game on Tuesday and will be looking to bring home their third straight league title when they take on West Greene at 8 p.m. at Unicoi County High School.
“We had kids tired and we had kids hurting, but they pulled it out tonight. Hopefully we can get ready to again Tuesday because West Greene is a good basketball team. It’s not going to get any easier going forward,” Hoese said.
While plenty of points were had by plenty of different players, Saturday’s contest was largely a showcase of two dynamic scorers in South Greene’s 6’8” big man Chandler Gamble who dropped in 39 points and diminutive Longhorn guard Carter Atwood who fired in 32 points.
“We gave up 32 to Atwood and that little man can play,” Hoese said. “But we made some big shots when it mattered. Gamble had a good game, and they made it tough on him. He fouls out late and everybody in the gym is booing him after dropping 39 points. He has been in the 30 the last couple of games and is playing well right now.”
Saturday’s action started with South Greene jumping out to an 8-1 lead after Cayden Fillers scored three points the old-fashioned way eight seconds after the tip and Gavin Dyer hit from behind the arc.
The lead grew to 18-8 after Jase Roderick connected on a three-pointer, but the Longhorns refused to let the Rebels run away. Just nine seconds later Atwood, the smallest player on the floor, fired in a triple for Johnson County.
With neither defense able to find an answer scoring continued almost at will for the remainder of the first quarter. Gamble added nine more points for South Greene, before Chris Wilson banked in a three-pointer at the buzzer to cut the Rebels’ lead to 33-25.
In the second quarter scoring returned to a more normal pace, but after Gamble and Dyer each scored four points South Greene held a 41-30 advantage. Atwood sparked Johnson County with a 30-foot triple and Carson Jennings followed it with another triple to close the gap to 41-36.
South Greene finished the first half on an 11-2 run with Will Arrowood sinking a triple with four seconds left for a 52-40 lead.
South Greene’s biggest lead came at 58-42 after Dyer and Trey Gentry connected from behind the arc early in the third quarter.
Less than two minutes later that lead was down to 58-50 after Darren Chappel made five at the foul line and Landin Lipford connected on a three-pointer. The Rebels were able to hold off Johson County by getting the ball inside to Gamble for eight points in a two minute stretch.
Atwood cut the lead down to 69-63 at the close of the third quarter when he drew contact and made two at the charity stripe with seven seconds left.
With 7:18 left to play Atwood landed a triple from the top of the key to cut South Greene’s lead down to 72-68. Gamble answered with back-to-back buckets from the block to give the Rebels a 76-68 cushion.
By the midway point in the period South Greene was in front by double digits at 86-75 after Noah Wright put back an offensive rebound.
Johnson County closed the gap one more time when Eli Tester hit from deep to make it 87-82. Gamble then went 4-for-4 at the foul line over the next 31 seconds. From there the Rebels held on for the 95-87 win.
Gamble’s 39 points tie a program single-game scoring record that he already shared with Roderick. Dyer scored 18 points for South Greene, Wright finished the night with 11 points and Roderick had 10.
In addition to Atwood’s 32 points Chappell scored 20 points for Johnson County, Tester had 11 and Lipford put in 10 points.
