ELIZABETHTON – The North Greene Huskies fell behind early, and their comeback bid came up short on Saturday night as they fell to the Unaka Rangers in the District 1-1A Tournament at Happy Valley High sSchool, 61-49.
Husky Head Basketball Coach Matt Weems said, “We had a really bad and slow start …we went the first five or six minutes without scoring then finally got some things clicking offensively. I thought in the first half we settled for too many jump shots and in the second half we did a better job trying to attack, but probably wound up a little tired.”
That slow start put the Huskies in an early hole that they spent the rest of the first half and most of the third quarter trying to overcome. The Huskies trailed 9-3 at the end of the first quarter, their lone basket of the quarter didn’t come until there was just under two minutes remaining in the quarter. A triple from the wing by Isaac Gaby broke the ice for the Huskies, but it was the physical defense that kept the Huskies in the game holding the Rangers to nine.
Back-to-back long range three-pointers by Jaiden Bailey and Tyler Britton to open the second quarter got the the Huskies back on track momentarily. The Rangers meanwhile were clicking, Justius Wallin was hitting from outside and big 6’9” John Hardin was making shots down low as the Rangers extended their lead to 14 points. For North Greene Gaby nailed a runner in the lane and a corner three as time was wending down.
The Rangers held an 11-point lead at the half at 27-16.
Just moments into the third quarter Hardin was fouled as he hit a short jumper for a three-point play the hard way to put the Rangers up 14, but that’s when things heated up, in more ways that one. Gaby drilled a triple from the elbow and Havoc Fair dropped back-to-back three’s and after some physical play Hardin was hit with a technical foul.
Bailey made both technical free throws and Britton’s corner three cut the Ranger lead to six points at 36-30 at the 4:10 mark of the third period.
Gaby came up with a steal and sent a pass to Thomas Darnell in transition. Darnell’s layup was good through contact, his free toss was good completing the three-point play, and the Huskies were down only three. Another empty possession by the Rangers gave the ball back to the Huskies with 3:10 to go in the quarter then Gaby squared up at the elbow and dropped a triple to tie the game at 36-36. The 14-point lead was erased in less than two minutes and sent the Rangers into a timeout.
Coming out of the timeout the Rangers went on a 10-0 run that covered the remainder of the third quarter and stretched into the fourth. The Rangers would add to that lead and extend it to 11 points on a couple occasions, but the Huskies weren’t out yet.
Britton sank a short jumper and Gaby dropped his sixth triple of the game at the two-minute mark to cut the lead to six at 53-47. With the Ranger in no hurry and looking to run some clock the Huskies were forced to foul, and the Rangers were able to hit the free throws before defeating the Huskies for a third time this season 61-49.
Weems later said, ”I wanted it to be rough, I felt like that was our best shot at getting it close. Havoc did a pretty good job on John, he’s tough and there guards are big and strong too, I felt like for the most part defensively we played pretty good, offensively we weren’t hitting tonight.”
NORTH GREENE- Gaby 20, Britton 13, Fair 6, Bailey 5, Darnell 5
UNAKA – JWallin 19, Hardin 16, Walsh 9, Guess 6, ZWallin 4, Smith 3, Fuller 3, Lambert 1
