West Greene got hot at the right time and shot their way to a 56-52 win over Greeneville in the first round of the District 2AA Tournament Friday night at Claiborne High School.
"We shot better, we moved the ball better, we reversed the ball better, we put a lot work in this week and did a lot better," West Greene coach Ed Gettys said. "We got hot tonight, and forced them to spread out which helped Charlotte (Murphy) down low and gave us some balance."
The Lady Buffs connected on seven three-pointers in the first half to hold a 28-23 lead going into half time. Kristen Johnson knocked down four from deep to lead the way for West Greene.
Greeneville center Madison Shipley was able to keep the Lady Greene Devils in front in opening period as she reeled off nine points to open the game. Charlotte Murphy was able to close the early margin to two late in the first period with a turnaround jumper from the left elbow that barely tickled the net.
Murphy led the Lady Buffs with 20 points while Shipley scored 20 for Greeneville.
West Greene opened the second quarter on 12-2 run as they dropped in four consecutive triples. Johnson hit two from the left side, Murphy sank one from straight away and Candy Majors connected from the right side to put the Lady Buffs up 25-19.
Johnson started the second half with another three for West Greene and Baylee Jarrell end the period with one as the Lady Buffs stretched their lead to 40-31.
Johnson finished the game with 18 points with five treys. Jarrell scored 11 connecting on three from behind arc.
West Greene would lead by as many as 14 in the fourth quarter and held an 11 point lead with less than three minutes to go in the came, but the Lady Devils refused to gown without a fight.
Shipley laid a pair off the glass to cut the lead to five with 1:20 left in the game. Greeneville'sReagan Lowery scored a tough bucket over Murphy to narrow the margin to four at 51-54 with 54 seconds left.
Gettys said, "It would have been easy for them (to give up the lead) and we got a little shaky at the end, but they were able to hit some free throws to hold on."
Lowery finished with 10 points for Greeneville, eight coming in the fourth quarter.
From there Murphy closed the game with two blocks under her own goal to ensure West Greene would advance to district semi finals and also earn a spot in the region tournament.
