The West Greene boys came out of gate red hot on Tuesday and found offense all over the floor as they took down Johnson County 95-78 in the consolation game of the District 1-2A Tournament.
“Overall this was great team performance,” West Greene coach Allen Tolliver said. “We had four guys in double figures, and when we have everybody going like that we are hard to beat. After tonight I’m looking forward to going into regionals.”
The Buffaloes scored the first 15 points on Tuesday to set the tone early, and force the Longhorns to scramble. They got out in transition and Leyton Frye led the way with seven points in the run. Austin Wampler hit from behind the arc in the stretch and Ethan Turner capped the run by taking a rebound coast to coast for a lay in.
“We just played our game, we got out and ran,” Tolliver said. “We hit the middle of the press, and as soon as we got there we had three guys running in front of the ball handler. We’ve worked all year on running the floor and filling our lanes, and you saw it work well in the early stretch.”
A pair of free throws by Dillon Robinson broke the streak, but West Greene went to the second quarter leading 19-7.
The lead grew to 27-11 just over two minutes into the second quarter after Turner sank a turnaround jumper in the paint and Frye got two pull-up jumpers to fall.
Frye led the Buffaloes on Tuesday with 37 points while Turner finished with 23, Mason McCamey put in 15 points and Wampler finished with 11.
“Leyton does a little b-t of everything for us,” Tolliver said. “He plays good defense, and distributes the ball about as well as anyone I’ve seen. He’s the motor that makes us run and everybody else follows his lead.”
With 2:43 left in the first half Frye shook a defender with a crossover and launched a triple from the left wing for a 34-16 lead.
On the trip the other way things really got out of hand for the Longhorns. Conner Simcox was called for an intentional foul while bringing the ball up the court after a forceful push off. He disputed the call and a technical foul was added to his tally, giving Johnson County’s best player his fourth foul before intermission. Another technical foul was assessed to coach Austin Atwood after that.
With six attempts at the foul line Turner made three free tosses and Frye made two. Then with possession on the restart Turner needed just four seconds to add a layup that pushed the lead to 41-16.
Johnson County was able to close the half with three-pointers from Robinson and Graham Reece, but West Greene still held a 48-28 lead.
In the early portion of the second half West Greene got five points from Wampler and Johnson County got five points from Connor Pierce.
McCamey and Turner then gave West Greene four points each, but Johnson County matched them shot for shot. Just before the buzzer Robinson hit from deep to cut the Buffs’ lead to 68-53.
In the fourth quarter the Longhorns did their best to close the gap, but Frye was able to hold them off with 11 points in the period to secure the win.
West Greene now moves on to the Region 1-2A Tournament where it will travel to Gatlinburg-Pittman on Saturday for the region quarterfinals.
West Greene 19 29 20 27 95
Johnson County 7 21 25 25 78
West Greene: Frye 37, Turner 23, McCamey 15, Wampler 11 Daniels 4, Gregg 3
Johnson County: Robinson 27, Lawson 16, Pierce 9, Jennings 7, Pickens 7, Chapple 4, Cgillag 3, Reece 3, Simcox 2
