3-point shooting lifts Lady Greene Devils over East

B

GREENEVILLE—Greeneville’s girls gunned in eight three-pointers and scored an amazing 34 points in the first quarter Tuesday night on their way to an 88-62 rout of Morristown East.

The Lady Greene Devils improved their record to 9-8 behind 23 points from Tambryn Ellenberg who hit four threes and scored 16 in the opening quarter.

Four other Greeneville players scored in double digits with Lindy Carter adding 18, Anna Shaw 12, Lauren Bailey 11 and Chloe Marsh 10.

Hailey Hall banged through 6 three’s on the night for East and lead the Lady Hurricanes with 22 points. Finley Surber tossed in 13 and was the only other East player in double figures. Hudson Cloninger added nine while Harmony Sullivan and Hannah Hall had eight apiece.

Both teams shot the ball very well. Greeneville finished the night 23 of 44 for 53.2 percent. The Lady Devils made 12 of 23 from behind the arc.

East wound up at 56.5 percent on 35 of 52. The Lady ‘Canes were 12 of 21 from three-point land.

It was the most points the Lady Hurricanes had given up since a 98-95 over Cosby on February 14, 2006.

First year East coach Justin Combs said, “Man they were hitting baskets from everywhere early in the game. We had talked to the girls about the fact Ellenberg was capable of doing that.

“I thought we had a really good night offensively, but you can’t give up that many points and beat anybody,” he added. “I was pleased with the offense but I would have liked to see us hit the boards a little harder and get more second chances.

“But when you score 62, you ought to win,” he said. “We were just bad defensively. Even when we went man they got to the rim on us. The things I was most disappointed in was our rebounding. It seemed they were getting as many shots as they wanted.”

Combs closed, “I was embarrassed by that performance defensively and I have to do a better job of getting them ready to play. You can blame it on any number of things like not playing for 12 days or whatever. But we can’t forget what it takes to win games especially playing good teams on their court.

“Now we have to try to put this behind us and get ready for Friday against West. That’s a game that everybody looks forward to every year.

“We’ll have to play a whole lot better in a bunch of areas to be able to compete with them.”

The Lady Devils were on fire from the opening tip. East stayed with them for about four minutes when Hailey Hall hit a three to get the Lady ‘Canes within 15-13 with 4:19 left in the opening quarter.

But Ellenberg sandwiched three’s around a triple by Malone and it was an 11-point game. Hannah Hall made a three for East but Ellenberg scored three more baskets in the final 1:51 of the period and it was 34-19 at the first break.

Hailey Hall and Cloninger hit three’s to start the second quarter and East closed within 36-28 on another three by Hannah Hall. But Bailey and Ellenberg nailed three-pointers to stretch the margin to 46-31 with 4:28 left in the half.

Sullivan had an old-fashioned three-point play, Riley Forester hit a bucket and Hannah Hall scored as East pulled within 49-38 but the Lady Devils scored the final five of the half to lead 54-38 at intermission.

Greeneville stretched the margin to 61-38 early in the third quarter before East scored nine straight.

It was 68-50 at the end of the third quarter and 70-55 after a basket by Cloninger with 6:30 left in the game. However, with the starters still in, Greeneville reeled off 10 straight points and won it going away.

Bailey pulled down 10 rebounds and Carter had eight as the Lady Devils had a 34-24 backboard advantage. Surber had six for East.

posteditor
posteditor
Articles: 27509