South Greene saw a 17-point lead at the outset of the fourth quarter melt away, but in the end the Rebels were able to hang on to capture the District 2-AA championship Tuesday night with a 58-54 victory over the Greeneville Greene Devils at the Chuckey-Doak High gymnasium.

The balanced Rebels, with four of the five starters scoring in double figures, shot lights out in the first half and managed to take a quick lead which they never relinquished, although the Devils got the deficit down to two points in the closing seconds.

Coach Terry Hoese of South Greene, who won their first district title since 2005, expected Greeneville to make a run.

"We were up 17 and in good shape, but I knew they would make a run," he said after the game. "They're too good of a team not to make a run. They've got shooters. Our kids got a little tired at the end. We weren't rebounding like we were early. We had a bit of panic set in. But in the end they did what they had to do and I'm proud of them for hanging on."

Both the Rebels and Devils will be at home Saturday night for the first round of the Region 1-AA playoffs. South Greene will host Johnson County, the fourth place team from District 1, who lost to Sullivan North 52-47 on Tuesday. Greeneville will host the North Golden Raiders. Unicoi County beat Sullivan East 56-52 for the District 1-AA championship. Sullivan East will host Cumberland Gap, who beat Grainger 59-58 in overtime Tuesday at Chuckey-Doak in the consolation game. Grainger will play at Unicoi County Saturday.

Saturday's winners will be at Chuckey-Doak Tuesday for the Region 1-AA semifinals.

South Greene, winners of 10 of their past 11 games and now 22-11 on the year, got a solid performance from everybody. Logan Collins scored 12, Daniel Tweed and Nick Davis each had 11 and Kolin Donahue scored 10. Ethan Wykle, named the tournament's MVP, scored eight and grabbed 10 rebounds.

"We've put together some good practices," Coach Hoese said of his team. "It's been a long time since we have had this opportunity, and the kids knew that. We kept stressing to them about the opportunity (to win a championship) and they responded."

It seemed the Rebels could do nothing wrong through three quarters. They hit 12 of 27 shots from the floor in the first half, all points coming in the paint, while Greeneville's shooting touch was lagging. South Greene led 30-18 at intermission.

"We dug ourselves a big hole," Greeneville Coach Brad Woolsey said. "The first three quarters we just weren't ready. They whipped us effort-wise. You can't come out in a championship game and not play for four quarters."

The Devils (17-12), behind the outside sharp-shooting of Trevor Ford and Brennan Hollowell, turned things around in the fourth quarter and quickly made the big Rebel lead disappear. Ford finished with a game-best 19 points, 12 in the final period, while Hollowell scored 14, half of those when GHS made their big final quarter rally.

GHS stayed close to the good shooting Rebs in the third by making some 3-pointers. Hollowell nailed one with 1:20 to play that closed the gap to 40-29. But then Daniel Tweed got hot for the Rebels, making three straight long ones to close out the period, the last of which gave South Greene its biggest lead at 51-34 at the horn.

"Daniel couldn't buy a basket early," Hoese smiled. "But the thing about him ... he ain't shy. And when he starts making them he can make a bunch."

South Greene obviously tried to play conservative in the final quarter and never made a single field goal. But seven turnovers allowed the Devils to recover and they went on a 16-3 run that had the once huge deficit trimmed to 54-50 with 1:51 left on the clock. Ford and Hollowell scored all those 16 points.

A free throw by Charlie Baker made it 55-50 with a minute to go, but Hollowell hit a 3-pointer to close to 55-53. Davis was fouled and made one of two foul shots for a 56-53 SG lead.

Greeneville missed twice and got yet another offensive rebound. Landon Duncan was fouled and made the back end of a two-shot foul to make it 56-54 with :07 on the clock.

The Rebs got the ball inbounds and Logan Collins was fouled with :05.7 to go. He calmly sank both free tosses to make it a two possession game and that iced the outcome.

"I thought all our kids played well," Hoese said. "Nick Davis was huge. He did exactly what we asked him to do, and that was to get to the bucket with his drives. I thought our kids just played their tails off."

Ethan Wykle of South Greene was selected tournament MVP and was joined on the all-tourney squad by teammates Kolin Donahue and Logan Collins; Greeneville's Landon Duncan, Trevor Ford and Brennan Hollowell; Cumberland Gap's Ben Arnold and Nathan Hatmaker; Grainger's Desham Walker and Hunter Spaw; and Chuckey-Doak's Julius Montgomery.

The Blue Ridge All-Conference team was also introduced. Ben Arnold of Cumberland Gap was named Player of the Year by the coaches, while Grainger's Darvel Walker was Newcomer of the Year. South Greene's Terry Hoese and Greeneville's Brad Woolsey were co-coaches of the year.

Other all-conference selections were Logan Collins, Daniel Tweed and Ethan Wykle of South Greene; Trevor Ford, Landon Duncan and Joseph Tillery of Greeneville; Nathan Hatmaker and Jon Slaven of Cumberland Gap; Chase Atkins and Austin Neely of Claiborne; Hunter Spaw and Michael Headrick of Grainger; Julius Montgomery and Cory Swinney of Chuckey-Doak; and Tyler and Taylor Patterson of West Greene.