Greeneville takes two from Jr. Cyclones

Published 8:57 am Monday, January 20, 2020

By Allen LaMountain

BY ALLEN LAMOUNTAIN
STAR CORRESPONDENT
For three quarters on Thursday evening, T.A.Dugger had things well in hand with a 10-point lead going into the fourth quarter.
In the face of Greeneville’s press defense, the Junior Cyclones lead dissolved as the Greene Devils ran off 17 unanswered points and rallied to a 48-46 win on Eighth Grade Night.
In the Junior Varsity contest, the Greene Devils got 20 points from post player Trey Thompson and took an easy 55-29 victory. Andrew Barnett led the JV Cyclones with nine points with Rhett Slagle and Jackson Buckles each added six.
“They are a very good team,” Junior Cyclones head coach Barry Johnson said. “You have to give them a lot of credit. We wish we could call some plays back but we kept the effort.
“Once we got down by three and then tied it up we just didn’t read that it was a tie game and we gave up the basket at the other end.”
The Cyclones (12-12, 6-8 conference) had the hot hand early and frustrated the Devils with a 2-3 zone defense that didn’t allow Greeneville inside penetration and took a 13-11 first period lead.
Things got better for Dugger in the second frame as the Cyclones raced to a 29-15 halftime advantage.
“They beat us by 23 down there, so I am proud of the kids,” Johnson said. “They have come a long way. For us to play as well as we did tonight, I am just proud of them.”
Greeneville got a couple of three-balls from guard Hayden Good and one from Austin Beets as the Devils clawed back to a 39-29 game going into the fourth quarter.
The Cyclones built their lead on the strength of eight halftime points from Will Churchill and six from post player Mason Ball.
Churchill finished with a team-high 12 points with Ball chipping in 10 more. Good led all scorers with 14 points for Greeneville.
Zachary Bates opened the fourth quarter with a deuce to give TAD a 41-29 advantage but the Devils shifted to a pressure defense and things began to fall apart for the Cyclones who committed seven turnovers in the stanza.
A three-point play from post player Kameron Lester jump-started the Devils offense and Lester hit another basket followed by a steal and bucket from Beets to pull Greeneville within 41-36 with 3:04 left in regulation.
Amanuel Dickerson hit three of four from the free-throw line to cut deeper into the TAD lead and made it a 41-39 contest. J.D. Woolsey then canned a trey and Drazin Taylor hit two free throws to give Greeneville a 44-41 lead.
Two more free throws from Good made it a 17-0 Devils run and made it a 46-41 game but Luke Whaley broke the run with a basket and after a defensive stop, he nailed a three-ball from the corner to tie the game at 46-46 with under 20 seconds left in the game.
Greeneville worked the ball into the post where Lester hit a deuce and was fouled. He missed the free throw and TAD inbounded with 2.7 seconds remaining but Xavier Smalls could not get off a shot as the buzzer sounded.
—
BOYS VARSITY
Greeneville 48-46
Greeneville (48)
Good 14, Pillar 7, Taylor 7, Dickerson 5, Lester 8, Beets 5, Myers 2.
TAD (46)
Smalls 2, Churchill 12, Blevins 3, Whaley 9, Ball 10, Griffin 8, Bates 2.
GMS  11   4 14 19 – 48
TAD   13 16 10   7 – 46
3 -point goals: G 7 (Good 4, Pillar, Taylor, Beets). TAD 4 (Churchill 2, Blevins, Whaley).

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