GRAY -- At tournament time, when the fortunes of a team's season are on the line, no lead is ever safe.

North Greene gave Unaka a dose of that reality on Monday in the District 1-A consolation game, storming from 14 down at the start of the fourth quarter to win 61-57 and claim third place.

With starters sick and even having to run off the floor mid-game, it was a total team effort by the Lady Huskies to get the win.

"They played real hard," said NG coach James Buchanan. "We had to battle through some sickness. We had some girls in foul trouble. Our three main subs played quite a bit. It was a total team effort. Our girls really played hard."

While the Lady Huskies know they will be on the road Friday night in the first round of the region tournament, they don't yet know who they will play. Hancock County and Cosby play tonight in the District 2 title game.

If the Lady Huskies play the entire game Friday night the way they did in the fourth quarter against Unaka, it might not matter where they have to go.

Unaka took control of the game at the start. The Lady Rangers came out with a couple of quick baskets to get on the board. North Greene took its first -- and for most of the game seemingly only -- lead of the night when Laiken Morrow converted a 3-point play to put the Lady Huskies up 9-8.

Dariane Bailey kept North Greene close with a six-point quarter, but then Unaka regrouped and thought it had a solid lead as time ran out on the first period only to see it cut in half when North Greene's Haley Vaughan hit a running 3-pointer from half court that trimmed the Lady Rangers' lead to 17-14.

The Lady Rangers came out firing in the second, spreading its lead to double figures thanks to a pair of 3-pointers from Jessie Matheson.

North Greene kept hanging in, getting back-to-back three-point plays from Corinne Guelli and another buzzer-beater by Vaughan, this time a driving layup, to fight back into the game and cut Unaka's advantage to 32-28 at halftime.

Unaka appeared to put the game away in the third quarter. Riding six points from Alicia Colbaugh, the Lady Rangers pushed their lead to a game-high 17 points at 50-33.

Megan Taylor hit a 3-pointer as part of a six-point period that sewed the seeds for the Lady Huskies' comeback.

Trailing 50-36 at the start of the fourth, Vaughan and Breanna Morrow sparked the Lady Huskies on a 14-2 run that had North Greene back to within two. Morrow hit a 3-pointer at the 2:47 mark that tied the game at 55, and then 30 seconds later, Vaughan went to the foul line and put the Lady Huskies in the lead (57-55) for the first time since they led 9-8.

Vaughan scored 10 of her game-leading 19 points in the fourth quarter.

North Greene outscored Unaka 25-7 in the fourth, but the Lady Rangers still had a chance to win it. They missed two shots with under 10 seconds to play, the second rebound being secured by Laiken Morrow and fed out to Vaughan to lock up the victory.

North Greene had balanced scoring. After Vaughan's 19, Bailey, both Morrow sisters and Taylor scored nine each.

Laiken Morrow had nine rebounds and three blocked shots. Breanna Morrow had nine boards as well.

Unaka was led by 12 points from Bradshaw. The Lady Rangers will play at the District 2 champion on Friday night while North Greene visits the district runnerup.

Just who that is will be determined tonight. North Greene swept Hancock County in two meetings but hasn't played Cosby this year.

"As far as having a preference, it doesn't matter, but I think confidence wise, it's good we got the three seed," Buchanan said.

Regular season champion Cloudland won the District 1 tournament, defeating Hampton 62-43 behind 15 points from tournament MVP Brooke Rhodes.

North Greene's Vaughan and Laiken Morrow earned a spot on the all-tournament team along with Courtney Clarke, Sydney Miller and Courtney Wilson of Cloudland, Hampton's Dorthy Dugger, Paige Montgomery and Danielle Guinn and Unaka's Brandi Ensor and Colbaugh.

The boys' consolation and championship games are tonight at Daniel Boone High School.