In a much anticipated rematch North Greene and West Greene squared off in Mosheim on Saturday night. The teams traded blows to the final buzzer, but it was North Greene who finished on top with a 57-56 win.
As expected Britton dazzled with 33 points while West Greene's dynamic duo Ethan Turner and Leyton Frye were held below their average, but Austin Wampler picked up the slack scoring a team high 20 points ….or did he score 21?
The game started off with the two teams exchanging buckets until the Huskies took control when Britton powered up a layup through contact for an and one. The free throw was good and the visiting Huskies were up 12-7 at the 1:39 mark of the first quarter. Then as the quarter was coming to a close Britton buried a step-back three-pointer and the Huskies enjoyed a 15-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Sam English opened the second-quarter scoring for the Huskies with a layin from in front followed by a deep three from the corner by Bennett McLain as the Huskies were quickly up 10 points at 20-10.
The Buffaloes made a run when Wampler made back to back short jumpers in the lane. Coner Campbell had a put-back at the rim while being fouled. He hit the free toss to trim the lead to 24-17, but two free throws by Luca May with three seconds showing on the clock put the Huskies back up by nine at 26-17 at the break.
The third quarter started with Turner going coast to coast for the layup. Frye backed that up with back to back fade-away jumpers in the lane through the diamond-and-one defense to cut the score to 26-23.
May hit one of two from the line and Frye buried a triple from the elbow to get the Buffs within one point at 27-26 at the 6:23 point of the third quarter.
It looked as if every time the buffs made a run the Huskies were up to the task and turned them back. Britton scored on consecutive trips down the court to give North Greene some breathing room but West Greene came back with a mini run of their own and cut the score to 36-34 when Wampler sank a triple from the corner.
Britton rounded out the scoring in the third quarter with a three from just outside the arc and the Huskies took a 42-35 lead in the fourth quarter.
In the fourth quarter when the Buffs would make a run the Huskies would come back with a run of their own. After a backdoor cut Britton put the Huskies up by nine at 54-45. Many thought the game might be in hand but a runner in the lane by Wampler, two free throws by Turner and a drive to the hole for a lay up by Mason McCamey had West Greene down three points at 54-51 with two minutes to play.
With North Greene trying to run some clock Turner came up with a steal and found Wampler all alone in the corner. The shot was good and the game was tied at 54….so the Buffs thought. The shot was originally called a three but was changed to only a two.
A Husky turnover gave the ball back to the Buffs with 30 seconds to play. West Greene coach Allen Tolliver and the Buffs on the court still hadn’t realized the tying shot had been changed, as they were holding for a final game winning shot. When the Buffs figured out they were actually behind they executed a play and the shot was no good and the Huskies had possession with 11.9 seconds left.
Tolliver made several unsuccessful pleas to the officials about the overturned game-tying shot and the game went on. On the inbounds pass Dennis Malone raced to the bucket and was fouled and completed the old-fashioned-three-point play, and the huskies were up by four at 57-53 with only 8.8 seconds.
Frye hit a deep three to bring the Buffaloes to within one at 57-56, but without a timeout they could only watch the final seconds click away and the Huskies would hang on to win 57-56.
North Greene coach Sam Tarlton said, “I think we did a great job in doing what we wanted to do in the first half. We broke down in the second half and Frye got going there, and we made just enough plays down the stretch to pull it out and anytime you can win on the road in the county it’s big”.
Tolliver also bragged on his team saying, "Austin Wampler stepped up in big way for us tonight, and we got another double-double from Ethan, and Leyton played through the double and triple team of the diamond-and-one defense, just overall proud of my guys”.
North Greene
Britton 33, McLain 9, English 2, Davenport 2, May 5, Malone 3, Carrico 3,
West Greene
Wampler 20, Frye 17, Turner 11, Campbell 6, McCamey 2
GIRLS
North Greene 66, West Greene 35
In girls action on Saturday North Greene started off hot and ran away from West Greene on the way to a 66-35 win.
The Lady Huskies took the early lead at 16-7 when Sonya Wanger hit a runner in the lane then a triple from the elbow. Wagner would go on the score nine in the first quarter en route to a 22-12 first quarter lead.
The Lady Huskies went on a 13-0 run to start the second quarter to stretch out the lead to 33-12 before Kinsley Ellenburg broke the Lady Buffs' drought with a nice left handed move in the paint. After the big run things settled down ant the Lady Huskies took a 19 point lead in to halftime at 39-20.
In the third quarter Maddie Bryant did her best to try to get the Lady Buffs back into the game with consecutive threes on consecutive trips down the court. Zoe Sanders kept the Lady Buffs at bay with her play on both ends of the court and the lad Huskies took a 54-28 lead at the end of the third quarter,
With both teams only having nine players available both coaches emptied what little bench they had in the fourth quarter and the Lady Huskies went on to defeat the Lady Buffs to complete the season sweep with 66-35 win.
Sonya Wagner eclipsed the 1,000 point career scoring mark during the game and will be honored at the next home game for the Lady Huskies.
Sanders led North Greene with 18 points while Wagner had 15 and Hailey Bailey added 11 points. Bryant led West Greene with 16 points.
Coach James Buchanan said after the game, "The only thing we didn’t do well tonight was shoot free throws, we struggled from the line but we did everything else pretty well.”
North Greene
Sonders 18, Gaby 6, G Buchanan 7, Wagner 15, Bailey 11, M Buchanan 1, Miller 8
West Greene
Bryant 16, Brown 7, Lawson 6, Ellenburg 4
