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GREENEVILLE—Kyle Cloninger jumpstarted East Tuesday night at Hal Henard Gym as he poured in 15 points in the first quarter and gunned through 36 as East handed host Greeneville a 68-57 setback.

It was the third straight win for the Hurricanes and puts them at 10-8 for the season. The ‘Canes won their final two contests in the BSN Tournament at Cleveland late last week.

Mason Smith gunned in four huge three-pointers in the third quarter and added 12 for East while Keagan Mink scored eight with all of those coming in the first period.

Adjatay Dabbs pumped in 27 for Greeneville, now 7-9, while Jayquan Price had 12.

Cloninger gunned in five three’s and made eight two-point field goals to go along with 5 of 6 free throws in his eighth game of at least 30 points this season. He pushed his career total to 1205 and is now averaging 27.5 for the 17 games he has played this season.

East coach Alden Collins said, “What a great start from Kyle. These Greeneville-Morristown East games have turned into high profile games and I wasn’t sure in the dressing room what our mentality would be or how we would come out and play.

“And Kyle came out and got us off to a great start,” Collins continued. “And feeling that confidence that exudes from him .sparks the rest of our team to get going.”

Collins went on to say, “I thought our bigs were great all night in being physical. Greeneville’s got big physical guys on the inside and we did a job of crashing the glass and keeping balls alive. And our littles scrapped around for the loose balls that came out.

“Mason made some huge three’s for us in that third quarter,” Collins said. “You know he’s struggled at times this year but the coaching staff and his teammates have confidence in him to shoot the ball and he did a great job tonight.”

Collins closed, “This was a big win for us coming off two straight in the tournament. Now we need to go back home and get ready for a good Morristown West team on Friday. That’s a huge district game for both teams.”

Greeneville coach Brad Woolsey said, “I thought East was really, really physically tough tonight. They scrambled for loose balls and rebounds.

“I thought one of the keys was that they had different guys get hot at different times and that was big for them.”

In talking about Cloninger, Woolsey said, “I thought he played with kind of a chip on his shoulder. Just look at the way he came out. He wanted to make plays and he did. He created separation and when he did he knocked down shots.”

With Cloninger and Mink combining for all but two, East led 25-20 at the end of the first period.

The pace was slower in the second stanza and Dabbs kept the Greene Devils close as he tossed in nine points. The ‘Canes led by as many as eight early in the quarter but the Devils closed with a 9-2 run to claim a 34-32 halftime advantage.

Smith started the third frame with a triple but Greeneville led 39-35. However, East took control as Smith hit three more three-pointers and Cloninger scored six points as the ‘Canes pulled out to a 49-43 lead.

However, Greeneville rallied within one when Dabbs knocked down a three to close it down to 52-51 after three periods.

Cloninger and Carter Gilliam hit the first two baskets of the fourth quarter to give East a five-point spread and they were able to control the ball and get good shots in the final minutes.

Cloninger hit two free throws with 4:07 left and B. J. Hubbard grabbed a rebound and put it back in with 3:46 left. Cloninger struck again with 3:26 on the clock and it was 62-51.

Dabbs scored for the Devils but Hubbard scored on a layup as East beat the Greeneville press and Cloninger made two free throws with 1:18 left to make it 66-53.

East made 27 of 50 from the floor for 54 percent including 9 of 21 three’s. The home team was 22 of 52 for 42.3 percent. Greeneville was 9 of 20 from behind the arc.

The Hurricanes out-rebounded the taller home team 29-25. Cloninger led the way with eight and Mink grabbed seven for East. Ty Williams had five for Greeneville.