The North Greene Lady Huskies beat out the Jellico 80-31 at the Huskies Den on Friday night in the Region 1-1A Tournament quarterfinals.
With the win, North Greene will advance to the Region 1A semifinals where they will take on the Unaka at West Ridge on Monday.
“We got them all in the book tonight,” North Greene head coach James Buchanan said. “Everybody scored, we won big, and everyone got to play. It’s one of those perfect nights.”
The Lady Huskies took charge of the court early, with senior point guard Sonya Wagner putting North Greene on the board just seconds after the tip-off. Teammate and senior Campbell Gaby answered Wagner’s points immediately with her own basket in the post.
Wagner finished the night with 17 points for North Greene after being sat by the second half of the game to rest. Gaby and Junior Hailey Bailey both scored 13 points. Senior and outside shooter Grace Buchanan put in 10 points.
Hannah Miller only recently reentered North Greene’s starting lineup after suffering a broken wrist, but proved herself to be a valuable player early on in the first quarter. After making an easy layup, Miller continued to score for the Huskies by pushing past Jellico's guards in an impressive drive for a basket.
Miller put up 13 points by the end of the fourth quarter.
Other notable players included freshman Ella Head with four points, while sophomore Mercy Buchanan and junior Heidi Harmon both scored three points.
North Greene remained in control of the scoreboard and entered the second half up 52-15.
Both teams came with an aggressive style of play, with much of the night’s scorings taking place at the free-throw line.
Coach Buchanan believes Jellico put up a fight.
“They played tough, they played strong and physical,” he said. “We kind of anticipated that, so we wanted to make sure we matched that intensity. I thought early on we kind of jumped on them to deflate them a little bit.”
Jellico sophomore and point guard Savannah Lay led her team in scoring, including a 3-pointer from the right corner near the end of the fourth quarter.
Despite the Blue Devils' efforts, they could not keep up with the fast-paced, fast-scoring Lady Huskies. North Greene ended the night 80-31 over Jellico.
For North Greene, the job is not finished.
“We’ve played Unaka twice, and we’ve been fortunate enough to beat them both times,” Coach Buchanan said. “But it’s hard to beat the same team three times in a season. [We’re going to] study a little film and hopefully, we’ll have them ready.”
North Greene will face off against the Lady Rangers on Monday at 7:30 pm in the Region 1A semifinals.
