GREENEVILLE— An old man once said that when the road gets tough, the tough get going.

That adage fit the Elizabethton Cyclones to a tee on Saturday night at Hal Henard Gymnasium as Coach Lucas Honeycutt’s squad dug down deep after trailing 33-26 at the intermission as the Greeneville Green Devils forced overtime. The Cyclones owned the four-minute extra period for a 64-58 OT win that sends them into the semifinals against Sullivan East on Tuesday at Unicoi County High School.

The Patriots dispatched of Chuckey Doak 71-59.

“They hit so many shots in the first half, I was just blow away after what I had saw watching film,” stated Honeycutt after the contest. “They are capable of doing that here on their home court and they don’t shoot as good away from home. We have been here before and it’s a tough place to play.

“We are just fortunate enough to comeback from that early deficit. This team has a lot of heart.”

Greeneville showed a side that Coach Honeycutt hadn’t seen on film in the early going as the Green Devils came out on fire offensively hitting five treys in the first 16 minutes in building the early advantage.

Dylan Debusk torched the nets for 13 in the first half with Dorien Goddard dropping in nine points and Takeem Young six for Greeneville who normally are more of a defense-oriented team than that of a scoring team.

Corey Russell’s eight points and seven from Michael Robinson served to offset some of the offensive prowess of Greeneville with Hayden Townsend and Alex Norwood contributing with four points apiece.

It was a different Cyclone team that came out in the second half as if they were a mathematically equation there were too many factors for the Green Devils to figure out as on this night for the Cyclones it wasn’t about one hero or standout—it was a total, all-around effort by each one that took the court.

It was a couple of drives by Eric Wilson in the third quarter that resulted in a driving basket to the rim and another that resulted in two perfect foul shots after the harm on a drive. Wilson finished with seven points.

There was an Adam Cornett trey set up by perfect ball movement that helped to tie the game as the horn sounded to end the third quarter. It was his only score of the game, but what a big-time score it turned out to be.

“Maybe the biggest play of the game was when everybody keyed in on Mike there late in the third quarter, and he kicked that ball to Adam and he knocked it down,” said Honeycutt about the play. “We have been really harping on that kind of stuff, and we have been missing some of that kind of stuff. We talked about how we needed to be a total team scoring wise.”

Norwood went from a post that was shooting 17 footers last week to a dominating power post that owned the Green Devils in the paint with soft-touch buckets from dead on and easy layups resulting in 14 points for the senior big man.

“He (Norwood) was focused in, and he had gotten chewed out in practice for shooting a 15-foot jumper,” added Honeycutt. “He then went on a scoring spree for the next few minutes which was something to see. We talked about that was what he needs to do and that was where he was at tonight.”

Norwood said he took it to heart what his coach had to say.

“Coach came to me right after the Happy Valley game and said we need to dominate in the post, and we worked on it all week,” stated Norwood. “Tonight I was just feeling it, and my teammates believed in me, and I was making my moves and if I didn’t have nothing I just passed it back out to my guys.

“They in turn were hitting big shots. It definitely boosted my confidence a lot.”

Russell managed to handle the press while adding some much-needed offense to finish with 12 points in the contest.

Then there was Mr. Consistent in Robinson, who only scored 17 points in the contest, but did a phenomenal job in dishing the basketball to the right teammate while putting the dagger in the Green Devils in overtime with a downtown shot from the Sycamore Drive-In to give the Cyclones a six-point advantage with little time left in overtime.

Lastly, Townsend also had big moments from a drive along the baseline in the opening portion of overtime to his two free throws that sent the death keel through the Greeneville faithful. Townsend finished in double figures with 11.

And as a defensive unit, the Cyclones tightened the noose around the Green Devils offensively in the final three quarters of play, including overtime, to allow only 25 points in 20 minutes after the break while outscoring the home team with 38 points over the same time span.

The defense was so good that Debusk or Goddard never scored another point after the half.

Young had to pick up the slack and was a one-man show in the second half and overtime scoring 21 of his game-high 27 in that span.

Elizabethton held the rest of the Green Devils to only four points aside from Young in the second half.

With the win, the Cyclones get a rematch with their big rival as the Patriots and Cyclones split in regular season on each other’s home court.

The winner gets a region final showdown opposite Unicoi County or Grainger Co. who will play in the other regional semifinal on Tuesday night as well.

The Elizabethton-East game tips off at 6 pm.

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BOYS REGION 1-AA FIRST ROUND

HAL-HENARD GYMNASIUM—GREENEVILLE

Elizabethton, 64-58 OT

Elizabethton (64)

Adam Cornett 3, Michael Robinson 17, Eric Wilson 7, Corey Russell 12, Hayden Townsend 11, Alex Norwood 14.

Greeneville (58)

Nathaniel Moon 3, Caden Ramsey 4, Dorien Goddard 9, Dylan Debusk 13, Takeem Young 27, Logan Shipley 2.

Elizabethton….   9   17   15   12   11 – 64

Greeneville…..  17   16     8   12     5 – 58

3-Pt Goals: Elizabethton 6 (Hayden Townsend, Corey Russell 2, Michael Robinson 2, Adam Cornett). Greeneville 6 (Dorien Goddard, Dylan Debusk 2, Takeem Young 2, Nathaniel Moon).