South Greene’s Upset Bid Upended In Overtime By Unicoi County

BLOUNTVILLE – The South Greene boys basketball fought hard and forced overtime, but Unicoi County struck the final blow and captured a 62-59 win in the District 1-2A championship game on Tuesday night at West Ridge High School.

During the season the Blue Devils swept the Rebels and outscored them by a combined 35 points, but on Tuesday South Greene gave them all they could handle.

“Outside of those guys in the locker room and maybe two or three parents nobody believed we could win this game,” South Greene coach Terry Hoese said. “We knew we were underdogs, and its hard to dig that hole against a good team. They just made one more shot than we did. When we got the lead in overtime I thought we were going to pull it out, but (Unicoi) is good.”

Both teams will now turn their attention to the Region 1-2A Tournament and will both be at home on Saturday in the quarterfinals. South Greene will play the winner of Pigeon Forge and Eagleton who met in the District 2-2A third-place game.

“Nobody likes to loose and I may be the world’s worst loser. But I think these guys know we can compete. Our schedule has prepared us for what is coming up. We’re ready for what is next,” Hoese said.

South Greene entered the second half trailing 32-24, but found new defensive intensity and found some plays in the paint that worked on offense. The comeback started on the first possession where Cayden Fillers knocked down a short shot from the block. Gavin Dyer was then fouled on a three-pointer and made all of his charity tosses to close the gap to 32-29.

The teams traded buckets over the next five minutes before Simon Burns turned a turnover into breakaway layup that evened the score at 42-42.

Going the other way Unicoi’s A.J. Thomas knocked down a triple, but with 25 seconds on the clock Jameson White let fly a step-back three that knotted things at 45-45 going into the fourth quarter.

“We went box-and-one on Jackson Simmons, he still scored 26, but we tried to disrupt the flow of their offense. We got some big rebounds and found some success in the paint on offense. That made it ball game,” Hoese said.

On the first possession of the fourth quarter South Greene took the lead for the time at 47-45 when Fillers powered home a layup.

Unicoi County began to separate again and with 4:08 left to play Thomas came down the baseline for a layup that turned into three points the hard way and a 55-49 lead.

Burns gave the Rebels some hope with a toe-on-the-line two, and then he lobbed one to Gavin Dyer on the block for a lay in that cut the Blue Devils’ lead to 55-53.

Unicoi tried to run down the clock, but White refused to make that easy. His pressure forced Thomas to lose his dribble, and the steal gave South Greene a chance to tie it.

The Rebels first went to Fillers who passed out of a double team in the paint to Wright and the junior tapped one off the glass to even the score at 55-55 with 40 seconds left.

Unicoi ran the clock down and called a timeout with eight seconds left to set up a final shot. On the final attempt Thomas drove to the rim, but Fillers met him in the paint and stuffed the shot to send the game to overtime.

On the first possession of the overtime period Burns poked the ball on the defensive end and Dyer converted a layup on the offensive end of the floor for a 57-55 South Greene lead.

Dyer gave South Greene the lead again at 59-57 with 1:58 left to play when he sank a pair of free throws.

Carter Simmons got inside to tie the game for the Blue Devils, and with 27 seconds left Cade Peterson nailed a triple from deep in the right corner to put Unicoi County in front 62-59.

South Greene got two chances to tie the game in the final 21 seconds, but White and Dyer both drew iron.

Ultimately it was a hot start by the Blue Devils that was South Greene’s undoing on Tuesday. In the first quarter Unicoi County knocked down four three-pointers and Jackson Simmons scored 10 points on the way to a 19-9 lead.

That hot shooting continued into the second quarter with Carter Simmons and Brady Simmons each connecting from deep as the Blue Devils’ lead reached 25-9 with 5:32 left in the first half.

“I should have started the game in that box-and-one,” Hoese said. “We talked before the game and you think about trying to stop Jackson, or letting him get his and stopping the other four. Well, none of it was working. So, we tried to at least contain Jackson. We ended up doing an ok job on him after that. We just should have started with that.”

South Greene got going with six points from Wright and a three-pointer from Dyer to close the gap to 28-18.

In the final minute of the first half Dyer and Charlie Lane each knocked down a three-pointer, but Unicoi still led 32-24.

Dyer led South Greene on Tuesday with 19 points, White scored 15 and Wright put in 10.

Jackson Simmons scored 26 points for Unicoi County, Carter Simmons had 17 and Thomas 10.