Tuesday night was Senior Night at Hal Henard Gymnasium, but it was freshman Trey Thompson who stole the show as Greeneville battled to a 74-67 win over Cocke County to wrap up District 2-3A play with a perfect 8-0 record.
“We took a really good shot from Cocke County, but stayed on top and stayed unbeaten in the conference,” Greeneville coach Brad Woolsey said. “These guys should feel great about what they have done in this league so far. They worked hard, they have come together, and they have endured adversity. I think when you go through to tough things it can bring your team together, and I think that is what has happened with these guys.”
Thompson dominated on both ends of the floor for the Devils despite taking every blow the Fighting Cocks could throw at him, finishing with 33 points and 18 rebounds.
“Trey was taking a lot of contact, but he doesn’t stop,” Woolsey said. “He doesn’t whine, you never see him ask for a call, he just battles through it. He was obviously a difference maker tonight.”
The night started with Cocke County jumping in front 11-0 with Brazen Stewart scoring six points and Lakkin France knocking down a three-pointer.
Hayden Goad came off of the bench and got Greeneville going with a triple almost five minutes into the contest. While Cocke County got a head start, the Devils came storming back. Thompson made it 15-10 when he put back a miss through contact and turned it into three points.
Jayquan Price followed with a drive to the rim and with five seconds left in the opening period Isaac McGill nailed a triple from the left corner to close the gap to 16-15.
Greeneville took the lead for the first time with 6:46 left in the second quarter when Adjatay Dabbs hit a short jumper from the paint. Thompson then scored on a pair of putbacks to give the Devils a 21-16 lead.
The lead grew to 26-18 after Thompson hit from deep and Dabbs went the length of the floor for a layup.
With 2:19 left in the quarter Goad received an inbound pass and sank a trey from the left wing to put the Devils in front 33-22.
Just like it started the game on an 11-0 run Cocke County ended the first half on an 11-0 run in which Kyler Haynes hit from deep twice before scoring on a steal to knot things at 33-33.
“A lot of our issues defensively, were effort issues and communication issues,” Woolsey said. “We were jogging back in transition, we didn’t have urgency in picking up men. It was just kind of a miss-mash defensive effort. I think we gave up six or seven offensive rebounds in the first half, which is usually a sign that you aren’t doing your job.”
The Greene Devils regained the lead for good with 6:27 left in the third quarter when Thompson scored through contact again and earned three-points the hard way to make the score 40-38.
After the teams traded buckets Kam Lester got a three-pointer to rattle in to put Greeneville on top 47-42. Price then hit from deep to push that lead to 52-44, and the advantage moved to 10 points when Goad scored in transition after a steal by Lester on the other end.
The third quarter closed with Greeneville leading 54-45.
In the early portion of the fourth quarter the teams traded points, but with 3:22 left the Fighting Cocks put a dent in the lead after Stewart struck from behind the arc and Baylee Baxter made good on an old-fashioned-three-point play to make it 62-57.
Dabbs and Stewart then traded triples to make the score 65-60 with 1:56 remaining.
Over the next 1:22 Thompson scored six points, while going 4-for-4 at the free-throw line to push the Devils back out to a 71-60 lead.
In the final 11 seconds France and Stewart both hit three-pointers for Cocke County to narrow the margin to 74-67.
Stewart led Cocke County with 29 points on Tuesday. Baxter scored 13 points and Haynes had 14.
Goad was also in double figures for Greeneville with 12 points while Price and Dabbs both put in nine points.
Greeneville will go into the District 2-3A Tournament as the top seed, but the Devils have two non-conference games left before then with Science Hill and Morristown East.
Greeneville 15 18 21 20 74
Cocke County 16 17 12 22 67
Greeneville: Thompson 33, Goad 12, Price 9, Dabbs 9, McGill 5, Lester 5, Woolsey 1
Cocke County: Stewart 29, Hayes 14, Baxter 13, France 7, Ramos 4
